The problem with migrants at Calais has been going on for years. However the situation has deteriorated because there are more migrants in the make- shift camp that the press call 'The Jungle' due to increased numbers of migrants arriving from outside the EU and migrating towards the Calais in an attempt to get across the Channel and into the UK, instead of claiming asylum in the first safe country they enter, as the law expects them to.
Meanwhile the French ferry workers have been striking and blocking the roads to the port with burning tyres. The roadblocks then cause a tailback of lorries, giving the migrants the opportunity to try to stow away on the lorries while they are standing on the roads waiting for the strikers protest to be dispersed
The migrants have also realised that they have more chance of getting into the UK by using the Channel Tunnel route and by coordinating their attempt do large numbers of them all try at once, which means the security staff are too few to turn them all back, so several hundred have managed to get into the UK thus week in freight trains as well as in lorries. A couple of migrants have also been killed in train accidents
The attempts by migrants to get through the tunnel mean that train services have had to be suspended for lengthy periods, which means that lorries hoping to use Eurostar train then end up piled up in the approach road, which makes them more susceptible to migrants hoping to stow away in them.
The suspension of Eurostar means the lorries that are trying to leave the ÙK on the train to Europe cannot do do and are parked up on the M20 motorway leading fine to Dover in what's called Operation Stack. That causes transport problems for the local businesses in Kent as vehicles are diverted to other routes
Cameron thinks the solution us more sniffer dogs to find hidden migrants and more fencing and more security guards
Which is ignoring the real problem that the migrants should not be there at all if France processed their claims for asylum and granted those who qualified for asylum and deported those who were just economic migrants. But France is nit doing that as these migrants have passed through many EU countries before getting to France, and should have claimed asylum in the first safe country. France would rather the migrants did manage to get to the UK and no longer be France's problem. Cameron us unable to put pressure on the French to process the migrants claims in case France tells us that the border can no longer be in France and must return to the UK side if the tunnel. If that happened all the migrants could just turn up in the UK and the UK would then inherit France's problem The whole situation is crazy
The migrants come from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, sub-Saharan Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Pakistan etc. Some are genuine asylum seekers (but should have sought asylum on entry to the EU) while others are simply economic migrants.
The situation is exacerbated because the EU countries who first receive the migrants e g Italy or Greece are nit or cannot afford to process their applications and the migrants then use the fact that there are no borders within the EU to travel to other EU countries instead if claiming asylum in the first safe country they came to.
It's all very complicated