Illegal Immigrants Exploit Channel Tunnel Closure

The partial closure of the Channel Tunnel on Monday due to a power failure resulted in large numbers of illegal immigrants attempting to get into Britain. Lorries waiting in the long queues for a ferry, or for the tunnel to re-open, were surrounded by immigrants, according to The Local.

In some cases, individual lorries had several dozen illegals attempting to break into them at any one time. The situation descended into chaos because the immigrants have set-up permanent camps at Calais in France so that they can take any opportunity to enter the UK.

As previously reported on Breitbart London, the police in France have made efforts to clear these camps but there are so many illegal immigrants in the area that they have been unable to keep on top of it. The problem has been made worse by refugees from Syria attempting to enter the UK.

The tunnel has now fully reopened but it is unclear how many illegals successfully made it into the UK as a result of the chaos. It is likely that, because of the increased traffic at the ports, checks will have been less thorough than usual. The usual checks themselves have failed to stop thousands getting through. The main method of checking is a hand-held carbon dioxide meter that is put into the backs of lorries to check if there is anyone breathing inside.

Lorry drivers can be fined large amounts for bringing illegal immigrants into the UK and very few break the law. The problem they have is that whenever they stop close to Calais the immigrants break into their vehicles. If they do not notice the break in they can become unwitting accessories to illegal immigration.

The way to avoid this is to remain parked in Calais for the minimum amount of time, something that was impossible during the Channel Tunnel closure. Some of them ended up in miles of stationary traffic just to get into the terminal.

The power failure in one of the tunnels caused a train to stop about a quarter of the way through its 50-kilometre length. This forced the 382 people on board to be evacuated into the service tunnel, which was build for emergencies. There are three tunnels in total, the two rail tunnels are each one way and the service tunnel in the middle.

A Eurotunnel spokesman said “Repairs took a long time as we had to change 800 metres of overhead lines in this section. An operation over such a distance in a confined space takes some time.”