UK aims to protect trucks from migrants

British Interior Minister Theresa May on Tuesday announced a special plan to keep illegal migrants off trucks traveling from Calais, France to England.

"Today I announce the creation of a new secure zone at the port of Calais for UK-bound lorries," May told parliament, adding that the protected area could accommodate up to 230 trucks and would be set up behind protective fences. The special zone would be monitored by French officials and would be operational before December.

"This should transform protection for lorries and their drivers - removing them from the open road where they can become targets for migrants attempting to board their vehicles," she added.

More than 8,000 migrants attempting to travel from French ports to Britain illegally in freight trucks have been intercepted by British security forces between June 21 and July 11, May said.

Transport companies paid more than 9 million euros ($10.3 million) in fines for carrying illegal refugees in the last year and suffered 1 billion pounds (1.4 billion euros/$1.56 billion) in losses because they had to destroy cargo in breached lorries.

Not a permanent solution

Recent strikes by French ferry workers in Calais have stranded thousands of trucks, and authorities are worried that more migrants could smuggle into Britain as a result. Twenty-two refugees were detained in Dover on Tuesday, area police chief Alan Pughsley told AFP news agency. Without more resources, he warned that local communities would "continue to suffer."

However, the secure zone is not a permanent solution and could prompt criminal gangs managing "migrant attacks" to the next "weak spot," John Keefe, director of public affairs at Eurotunnel, told a parliamentary inquiry into the problem in Calais.

Around 3,000 migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East have been camping around Calais in northern France, in the hopes of crossing the English Channel to the UK.

mg/cmk (Reuters, AFP)