Paris – A French police officer said on Wednesday that a Sudanese man died as migrants desperate to enter Britain from France stormed the Eurotunnel entrance.
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The officer said on condition of anonymity in Paris that British ministers and security chiefs were holding emergency meeting to try to tackle the growing crisis.
He said freight and passenger traffic through the rail tunnel has been severely disrupted as migrants camped out in shanty towns in the Calais area have repeatedly tried to board trucks and trains travelling from France to Britain.
The officer said the situation has turned into a blame game with Eurotunnel asking French and British governments to reimburse it for the 11 million dollars it has spent to beef up security to cope with the latest migrant crisis at Calais.
The police said the man who died on Wednesday was probably hit by a lorry leaving one of the shuttles that transport vehicles through the tunnel.
A report said he was the ninth migrant to die in the tunnel since early June.
The Eurotunnel said there were about 1,500 attempts by migrants to access the tunnel on Tuesday night, after 2,000 attempted the previous night.
“For the thousands of migrants fleeing war, upheaval and poverty and now camped in shanties around the port of Calais known as the “jungle”, the aim is a better life in Britain.
“Many will seek illegal employment in Britain’s shadow economy or claim asylum in a system often seen as more generous than the French equivalent.
“They also know that Britain has no national identity cards,’’ Eurotunnel official said.
The official said such hopes are encouraged by traffickers who squeeze money out of migrants on their arduous journeys from the war zones of the Middle East and from Africa. (Reuters/NAN)