NY Times: Britain and France Scramble as Channel Crossing Attempts by Migrants Continue
Britain and France scrambled on Wednesday to address the latest flash point in Europe’s festering migrant crisis after a second consecutive night in which hundreds of people living in squalid camps in northern France sought to force their way through the Channel Tunnel.
British ministers and officials held emergency talks in London as pressure mounted on both sides of the English Channel for tighter security around the tunnel and for broader measures to defuse the situation, the most recent to highlight the scale of illegal migration from the Middle East, Africa and other poor and war-torn regions into Europe.
As climate change causes further stresses, and unrest continues across the Middle-East, Africa and Asia, we can expect to see more and more of this.
Guardian: Channel gridlock after migrants make 2,000 attempts to storm Calais terminal
Migrants made about 2,000 attempts to storm the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais, causing severe delays to cross-Channel rail services and gridlock on UK roads, it has been revealed.
The migrants’ attempts to enter the UK forced the tunnel operator to close the terminal early on Tuesday morning, disrupting rail services for up to an hour and having a knock-on effect on road tailbacks in Kent, Eurotunnel said.
Countries all across the EU are dealing with an influx of refugees and migrants fleeing unrest, poverty and food crises.
Already suffering Greece struggles with flood of migrants
Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant explains in this report from one of the country’s famed islands.
MALCOLM BRABANT: On the island of Lesbos, just four miles from the Turkish coast, it feels like the world is emptying and walking in this direction.
MAN: Hi.
MALCOLM BRABANT: The exodus is propelled by war, tyranny, persecution and poverty. The magnetic pull of European prosperity and peace is impossible to resist.
Soon, hostility and rejection will temper the emotion of a safe landfall. But, for the moment, euphoria validates the exorbitant one-way ticket.
ERIC KEMPSON, Volunteer Refugee Helper: Got a boat in, mostly Afghanistanis, took about 25 minutes to come across, mainly five, six children. That boat, there was about 50 people. So, it would be $50,000, American U.S. dollars. It’s $1,000 a head for the traffickers.
