Britain is ready to finance the construction of a wall along the highway that reaches the French port of Calais. The aim is to stop migrants trying to board lorries bound for England. The BBC announced it on Wednesday, citing Immigration Undersecretary Robert Goodwill as a source. The construction of the work, according to British television, should begin "very soon".
"The great wall of Calais", as the media have already nicknamed it, will be four meters high and will run for a kilometer along the two sides of the arterial road near the Jungle camp, where thousands of migrants live. “The wall will prevent attempts to disrupt motor vehicles preparing to cross the Channel,” Goodwill says.
The project is estimated to cost £1,9m and is part of a £17m package by the British government to better control borders managed jointly with the French authorities.
Calais, a British border on French soil, has long been in chaos. Apart from the protests over the conditions of the refugee camp, visited last week by a British delegation who called it "a disgrace to the human species", a report from the House of Commons indicates that an immigrant was discovered every six minutes in July while trying to get into a truck.
Yet, according to Kate Gibbs, director of the Road Haulage Association, the lobby of the hauliers, the wall is a "scandalous waste of public money", which will only move the problem a little further south but will not change anything in substance: " That money would be better spent investing in strengthening safety on the roads leading to Calais. They already call it the 'Great Wall of Calais' but what good will it do? It will be a tiny obstacle near the port, but the illegal immigrants will be able to continue hiding on the trucks a little before the wall”.
