Over 100 migrants made it into Britain after last night’s storming of the Channel Tunnel – an “unusually high number” – according to UK sources of the AFP news agency.
As the tensions between Britain and France escalate over the defence of British borders via Calais, it appears that the security being deployed in the region is simply not good enough. This has led UKIP leader Nigel Farage to call for British military involvement in order to secure the borders.
“A number of people have come through,” admitted Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May. The source claimed: “It was over 100 on a number of trains. It’s an unusually high number, normally it’s a handful or zero.”
AFP reports:
A Home Office spokesman declined to give precise numbers, saying only: “All asylum claims are considered on their individual merits. We will seek to remove anyone found not to need our protection.”
Referring to the migrant arrivals on Tuesday, a British source close to the matter told AFP: “It was over 100 on a number of trains. It’s an unusually high number, normally it’s a handful or zero.”
The Times reported in its Wednesday edition that a record number of 148 people had made it across.
Migrants apprehended on the British side of the Channel Tunnel initially go through identity checks at a facility near the tunnel exit in Folkestone where they are allowed to make asylum claims.
Whether or not they have made asylum claims, the migrants are then transferred to an immigrant removal centre in nearby Dover, which is housed in a former fortress and run by the prison service, officials said.
The Eurotunnel operator said in a statement on Wednesday that it had blocked 37,000 attempts at trying to make the journey since the start of the year.
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