Drivers paid nearly £800 to 'smuggle migrants' across the Channel

 
Smugglers are said to be paying lorry driver £800 to have migrants travel in their vehicle (Picture: EPA/Etienne Laurent)
EPA/ETIENNE LAURENT

Human traffickers are hiking their rates to smuggle migrants across the Channel after security at Calais was stepped up, it was claimed today.

Smugglers were said to be paying drivers nearly £800 to have migrants hidden in lorries heading for Britain, and passing on the higher costs to the migrants.

Hundreds of extra police and security guards have been deployed to protect the Channel Tunnel railhead at Coquelles near Calais in recent days.

New fences started to be built around the Channel Tunnel security area yesterday, while more sniffer dogs are being deployed.

Maya Konforti, a volunteer worker at a makeshift camp near Calais known as the Jungle, told Sky News: “The harder the border is to cross, the more the smuggling rings develop, find ways to cross, and they increase their prices.

“Two months ago they were paying €500 [£351] for people to open a truck and close the door on them. Now it has gone to €800 or €1,100 [£774].”

Yesterday Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the crisis was coming under control.

“We saw a peak last week, since when the number of illegal migrants has tailed off,” he added. But France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, warned increased security alone would not solve the problems and urged Britain to “do more”.

“It’s completely unrealistic to think we’re going to resolve a humanitarian tragedy which causes disorder all over the world with security measures,” he said in an interview in La Croix newspaper.

“While [security] is necessary, it’s not enough. The solution has to be global. We have to also work with the countries of origin, notably Niger.”

He said the authorities in European point-of-entry countries such as Italy needed to distinguish between asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants who were moving for economic reasons.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in