It is no news that Europe has been struggling to absorb the 137,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived on its shores in the first half of 2015 alone—an 83% increase from the same period last year.
Migrants who come from war- torn countries of the Middle-East and North Africa are putting a huge pressure especially on countries of Southern Europe.
Despite the fact that Calais’s 3,000 migrants may represent only a fraction of those seeking asylum in Europe, the city with an unemployment rate of 13%, well above the national average, says it can no longer host so many migrants who generate additional economic and security challenges.
As a result, a sharp surge in violence in the French port is witnessed as migrants try to get to the UK through the Channel Tunnel believing that Britain is a better place to find jobs and secure a future than France.
More than 39,000 attempts to cross the Channel illegally were prevented in 2014 to 2015 – more than double the previous year.
British Home Secretary Theresa May said that between June 21 and July 11, the French and British authorities successfully blocked over 8,000 attempts by illegal migrants to enter ports in France.
Eurotunnel, the company that runs the shuttles through the Channel Tunnel, also reported blocking 37,000 attempts, described as “nightly incursions” of hundreds of migrants.
On an official note, Cameron promised to track down illegal immigrants and block them from getting to Britain although few make it across, pledging more fencing and sniffer dogs to crack down on illegal border crossings.
The Calais migrant crisis has made things tense between France and Britain as British politicians accuse France of being lenient and not taking full measures to stop the exodus, as a response, the French side quickly dispatched 150 extra riot police to Calais and began patrolling the 14-mile perimeter of the Eurotunnel complex, blocking roads previously open to the public. To be continued.