Vol. 79/No. 29 August 17, 2015
They are battling French riot police and heavy British border security — U.K. border controls are organized on the French side of the channel crossing — including 16-foot-high fences topped with coils of razor wire, infrared detectors and private guards. On July 28, a worker from Sudan was crushed by a truck, the ninth person to die this year while attempting the crossing.
“I want to get to Britain to find work and for my human rights,” an immigrant named Samra told Sky News Aug. 1. Her situation is typical of many fleeing conditions of war, economic crisis and social dislocation in their countries of origin, especially Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan. They end up in what’s become known as “The Jungle,” a makeshift camp without food or running water housing some 5,000 people on the outskirts of Calais.
Thousands of others have died making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Last year the body of Syrian student Mouaz al Balkhi washed up on a beach in the Netherlands. His attempt to reach Britain took him on an eight-month journey through Jordan, Turkey, Algeria, Libya, Italy and France.
No ‘safe haven’
Britain will not become a “safe haven” for immigrants and refugees, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said July 30. Speaking to the press during a visit to Vietnam, he stated that more immigrants will be deported to deter the “swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life.” The government will make Britain “a less easy place for illegal immigrants to stay” by restricting their ability to access bank accounts and public housing as well, Cameron said.He reported that London was working in concert with the French government. Paris is sending an extra 120 police, while the U.K. government invests in fencing, razor wire, sniffer dogs and other security measures at the channel crossings in Calais and Coquelles.
The French government has already deployed 600 riot police to assist the local cops, and the authorities have arrested 18,000 immigrants in the first half of this year.
“We have got to deal with that problem at its source,” Cameron said. The British military is being readied for deployment in Libya, where many of the refugees making the Mediterranean crossing start out. Its aim is to help stabilize the government there along with troops from Italy, U.S., France, Spain and Germany.
The measures taken by the British and French governments to block the refugees have disrupted tunnel traffic. Thousands of trucks have been stranded on a gridlocked motorway on the British side of the channel.
Promoting British nationalism
The Refugee Council said Cameron’s use of the term “swarm” was “irresponsible, dehumanising language.” Many Labour and Liberal Party politicians echoed the criticism, while promoting British nationalism, including Labour Party Acting Leader Harriet Harman. She called on the government to demand compensation from France for disrupted British businesses.London “should be getting the French to assess the migrants, each one of them, to see if they are genuine refugees,” Harman told Sky News. “If not they should be deported. The French should sort it out on their side of the border. The ultimate job of the prime minister is to keep Britain in business.”
United Nations official Peter Sutherland said the demand for migrants to be kept out of the U.K. was “a xenophobic response to the issue of free movement.” Last year Germany received 175,000 asylum applications, while Britain received only 24,000, he noted.
The British Road Haulage Association called on Paris to send the French army to aid the Calais police “to contain, segregate and control the migrant threat.”
There have also been calls to send in the British army. Kevin Hurley, police and crime commissioner for Surrey, called for deploying elite Gurkhas based near the U.K. end of the Eurotunnel. The U.K. Independence Party called for the army to be deployed at British ports, while Conservative Member of Parliament David Davies urged the British army to be sent to Calais.
Related articles:
Communist League: ‘Open the borders!’
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