David Hanson MP: Time for action on migrants coming into Britain through Calais

Shadow Immigration Minister David Hanson writes about migrants risking their lives to enter the UK as the Mayor of Calais visits parliament today. Today the Mayor of Calais visits Westminster to discuss illegal migration with the Home Affairs Select Committee and, along with our own Government, she has some big questions to answer on how the French authorities are dealing with this dire situation. Last week, for my part, I actually went to Calais to see for myself the pressures on the border there. It was a challenging visit. A busy port, central to the UK and the rest of Europe, a hub for tourist and business travel, the gateway to the UK but also now something else. An end destination for hundreds of migrants who have travelled across Europe seeking a better life. Some may have travelled across many borders to find employment. Others may have claimed asylum or refuge elsewhere in Europe. Many may have been the victims of traffickers and gangs, extorting money to bring people across the world in terrible conditions. Whatever their journey, no one who sees the disturbing sight of migrants, homeless, huddled on street sidewalks, in roads, by lorries, near cars, washing in the canal, desperate at the end of long journeys, can fail to be concerned. Nor can we turn a blind eye to the problems for lorry drivers and holiday makers, worried that people are quite literally risking their lives to jump on a truck, hide in a car or simply run to the railway lines or charge a barrier. On the day I went, in the space of 12 hours at the one part of the port I visited 75 migrants were removed from 30 lorries out of the 2000 that passed - many more tried. This is not new – we saw problems over ten years ago. And the Labour Government acted with France to tackle the problem. But urgent action is needed again now. Because it can't go on. And that needs at its heart action to quell the flow of those migrants whose journey ends in Calais We need action from the Government – including looking again at introducing fingerprinting and working with allies across Europe to enforce EU-wide agreements to prevent migrants travelling unimpeded across borders. But I think we have to be frank that, whilst there is a clear and urgent role for our Government, there is far more the French authorities should be doing to stop the dangerous stream of migrants trying to enter our country illegally. No one I met in Calais could explain to me why the French authorities are not apprehending people in France, determining their status and either offering asylum, refuge or repatriating them home or the country in Europe they first entered (as agreed in the Dublin Convention). I've even heard stories this week that the 75 stopped from travelling whilst I was there will simply be picked up by the police and then dropped off again outside Calais - that’s not good enough. France needs to step up its game. So at the Home Affairs Select Committee today, I think Natacha Bouchart, the Mayor of Calais has these questions to answer: 1) Why are the French authorities failing to stop people entering France and making their way to Calais?2) What is she doing to work with the British Government to stem the flow of illegal immigrants through her city?3) Why are the French border forces not apprehending people and returning them to the country in Europe they originally entered?4) What is being done to stop the same people trying night after night to get into Britain?5) Are there changes that can be made to the port of Calais to make it harder for people to attempt to climb into lorries – at much personal risk? This is an untenable situation and today in the Committee I hope Ms Bouchart will recognise her role in taking action to sort this out.