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Hammond: We've 'Got A Grip' On Calais Crisis

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has insisted the Government has a grip on the migrant crisis at Calais, as he promised 100 security guards will be sent to the trouble spot.

Mr Hammond was speaking after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee, which was called to discuss the situation in the French city.

It comes as figures suggest that as many as 70% of migrants in Calais may be making it in to Britain .

Mr Hammond said: "I think we have got a grip on the crisis.

"We saw a peak last week, since when the number of illegal migrants has tailed off.

"We have taken a number of measures in collaboration with the French authorities and Eurotunnel, which are already having an effect and over the next day or two I would expect to have an even greater effect.

Some of those measures - such as extra sniffer dogs and fencing to secure the terminal buildings and platforms - were announced last week.

But Mr Hammond has also said that 100 additional guards would be at the terminal in Coquelles, while UK Border Force officials will join their French counterparts working inside the Eurotunnel control room starting tonight.

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In the UK, the Government has announced new measures designed to put off would-be asylum seekers, including threatening landlords who fail to evict migrants who do not have the right to live in Britain with a prison sentence of up to five years .

Meanwhile, Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett has invited Prime Minister David Cameron to travel with him across the Channel to see the "appalling conditions" for himself.

The crisis has cost the economy millions of pounds as parts of Kent are almost closed off due to Operation Stack - the police method of using parts of the M20 to park lorries queueing for the tunnel - and in the goods that need to be thrown out because of contamination or because they go bad after the long wait.

Mr Burnett said: "Without witnessing the mayhem at Calais first hand, neither the Prime Minister nor his advisers can fully grasp the severity of the situation."

Research by the French authorities, which has been passed to the Home Affairs Select Committee, has estimated that seven in ten people "processed" in Calais leave within a four-month period.

It potentially indicates that as many as around 3,500 of the estimated 5,000 migrants in Calais could be making it across the Channel.

Reports in France said there were some 1,700 attempts to reach the Channel Tunnel on Sunday night. A day earlier, some 2,500 people stormed the barriers.