Express
December 11, 2013
France last night stood accused of encouraging thousands of refugees to attempt to enter Britain illegally after a homeless shelter dubbed ‘Sangatte II’ was opened in Calais.
Chaotic scenes in the port now bear striking similarities to those at the original Sangatte camp near the Channel Tunnel terminal where illegal immigrants gathered in their thousands and rioted before it was closed in 2002.
Calais’s Socialist mayor Natacha Bouchart has spent £100,000 on a building in the centre of town where the legions of would-be migrants can eat a hot meal and wash.
Yesterday in Calais there were at least 500 refugees, some of whom had spent two years travelling from countries such as Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and Pakistan.
The Daily Express was the first British newspaper inside one makeshift tent city where desperate men and women, some with children only a few months old, are prepared to risk their lives to reach to the UK.
Alongside penniless vagrants at the shabby litter-strewn site yesterday were doctors, teachers, lawyers and engineers who have lost their homes, personal possessions and families in war-ravaged countries like Syria and are desperate to reach Britain.
The majority wait until darkness to slash the side-panels of lorries to try to hide inside. Others are prepared to pay intermediaries as much as £3,000 to broker a safe passage across the Channel.One young Afghan, who has made at least 30 unsuccessful attempts to slip into the country this year, said: “We want to go to Britain because life is not ok in our country and people are so nice in the UK. We don’t want to be in France. They don’t look after us. It’s about risk. When I crossed the border to leave Afghanistan I was shot at, so this is worth the risk.”