British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday called the events of the previous day at the French end of the Channel Tunnel — where video showed people clambering into the trailers of trucks backed up by a strike-caused delay — “unacceptable.”
The televised scenes raised once again the sensitive political issue of people entering the United Kingdom without the required documents.
Cameron vowed Wednesday in the House of Commons to strengthen border controls at the French entrance to the tunnel. He said, as well, that Italy, where most of the people try to enter the European Union, must do a better job of fingerprinting and documenting those caught on its shores.
In addition, he said the United Kingdom would work with France to institute better border controls, and that sniffer dogs and better fencing might be used to keep would-be entrants to Britain away from the mouth of the tunnel.
“It is totally unacceptable scenes we’ve all been witnessing for the last day,” Cameron told the parliamentarians. “Of course, there was a key role played in this by the strike that took place in France.”
On Wednesday, 493 migrants were caught trying to cross the English Channel, according to Steve Barbet with the Nord Pas de Calais Prefecture.
“We usually only find 50 migrants in 10 trucks; this is an increase in number,” he said.
Strike shuts tunnel to traffic for hours
The 31-mile-long tunnel connects northern France with southern England. Numerous trains for passengers and vehicles pass through it each day, and it is a key link between the British Isles and the European mainland.
The tunnel was closed for several hours Tuesday when striking ferry workers, protesting possible job losses, entered the site at the French entry to the tunnel, near Calais, and lit fires on the train tracks.
The closure of the tunnel backed up traffic, including numerous semitrailers. And video from the site on Tuesday showed people running to jump inside the trailers, most likely in the hope of hiding there until the trucks were inside the United Kingdom.
Calais has for years been a gathering place for people without documents trying to find a way into the UK — a part of the EU but not part of the passport-free Schengen Area.
Cameron said the EU must do more “to break the link between getting in a boat and settlement in Europe.”