Minister for Complacency – we’ve got a grip on Calais crisis
Now furious hauliers tell PM to cut his holiday short
THE Cabinet Minister left in charge of responding to the Calais migrant crisis last night made the astonishing claim that the problem had ‘peaked’.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted measures to stop illegal immigrants breaking into the Eurotunnel terminal were ‘having an effect’.
He made the boast as Channel Tunnel bosses complained that thousands of migrants were still roaming the French port ‘at will’.
Mr Hammond, who led the latest Cobra security committee meeting on the fiasco as David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May are on holiday, said: ‘I think we have got a grip on the crisis.’ His comments will be used to attack the Government if the chaos escalates.
Furious hauliers said Mr Cameron and his team had failed to grasp the ‘severity’ of the situation. They urged the Prime Minister to break off his holiday and witness the bedlam in Calais first hand.
A CABINET minister last night took a huge gamble by claiming the Government ‘has a grip’ on the Calais crisis.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond made the boast despite Channel Tunnel bosses warning that 5,000 migrants are roaming the French town ‘at will’.
Eurotunnel said that the chaos will continue until the migrants are moved, despite a string of crackdowns hurriedly announced by ministers in recent days. It came as:
The European Commission demanded that Britain take more asylum seekers as an act of ‘solidarity’;
Ex-immigration minister Phil Woolas called for a UK-run detention camp to be opened at Calais;
It emerged the number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Britain rose by almost 50 per cent in a single year;
The Road Haulage Association said David Cameron and his team had not grasped the ‘severity’ of the situation. It urged the Prime Minister to break off his holiday – which began yesterday – and witness the bedlam first hand.
Home Secretary Theresa May is also on holiday – leaving Mr Hammond to chair the latest Cobra security committee meeting to discuss Calais.
Last night, to surprise at Westminster, he made himself a hostage to fortune by predicting the worst was over. The comments will be used to attack the Government if the chaos escalates.
Mr Hammond also refused to be drawn on whether it was appropriate for Mr Cameron to have already begun the first of three summer breaks. He said: ‘I think we have got a grip on the crisis. We saw a peak last week, since when the number of illegal migrants has tailed off. We have taken a number of measures in collaboration with the French authorities and Eurotunnel which are already having an effect and over the next day or two I’d expect to have an even greater effect.’ Mr Hammond emerged from the latest in a series of emergency Cobra meetings to announce more security measures. He said 100 additional guards would be on duty at the terminal in Calais, while UK Border Force officials
‘There is a major problem’
would start working inside the Eurotunnel control room.
It follows a series of announcements over the weekend by ministers, who were stung by claims on Friday that they had produced only ‘sticking plasters’.
These include jail terms for rogue landlords who knowingly let to illegal migrants and consulting on removing benefits from failed asylum seeker families.
However, Eurotunnel public affairs director John Keefe said that while efforts to make the UK a less attractive destination might work in the long term, there was a ‘major problem’ now with the ‘5,000 or so migrants liv- ing and moving around the Calais area at will’. Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said: ‘Without witnessing the mayhem at Calais first hand, neither the Prime Minister nor his advisers can fully grasp the severity of the situation.’
Lorries have repeatedly been targeted by migrants trying desperately to reach Britain.
The crisis has cost the economy millions as hauliers are forced to dispose of contaminated goods and wait in lengthy queues on the M20 in Kent.
Mr Burnett has written to the Prime Minister requesting an urgent meeting.
The number of attempts to storm the tunnel reached a high of 2,000 last Tuesday, but has remained at alarming levels.
Meanwhile, the EU risked a new row with Britain by saying the UK must show more ‘solidarity’ by welcoming migrants in the Calais crisis.
European Commission officials said they expected the UK to take its ‘share of responsibility’ in accepting foreigners even though it has exercised its right not to take part in any EU quota scheme.
The UK ranked 14th out of 28 EU countries last year for the number of asylum seekers accepted, approving 217 requests per million of the population.
AS Eurotunnel bosses yesterday warned of a gang of 5,000 migrants wandering around Calais ‘ at will’ looking for opportunities to sneak into the UK, exLabour Home Office minister Phil Woolas called for a British-run detention camp to be opened.
‘If migrants knew they’d be locked up and deported when they got to Calais they wouldn’t go,’ he said. Even more striking, however, was his observation that ‘the mess in Calais is down to years of soft- minded liberalism and utter naivety’, including the impact of his own government’s Human Rights Act.
How refreshing it would be if one of the hopelessly inadequate candidates for the Labour leadership could manage such candour about the party’s past failings.