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Migrant Crisis: UK Hauliers Fear Calais Deaths

British haulage officials have told Sky News that people will die if the authorities fail to do more to protect lorry drivers travelling through Calais.

Drivers say they now have to run the gauntlet of intimidation and threatening behaviour from desperate migrants who try to break in to the back of their container lorries bound for the UK.

The French authorities have been heavily criticised for not providing enough security for HGV drivers.

In the last few weeks there have been chaotic scenes as striking ferry workers have blockaded the port.

The latest incident saw more than 150 migrants cause major disruption to Channel Tunnel services when they tried to storm the French terminal.

The chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, Richard Burnett, told Sky News the French military should be deployed.

He said: "Put yourself in their situation: you've got 20 migrants around your truck and you're on your own trying to get them off.

"They are intimidating, some of them have metal bars, knives and, in one incident, a gun was pointed at a trucker. Somebody is going to get killed."

Haulage companies are now stepping up their security.

Mike McLuskey, who runs a fleet of trucks from his offices in Buckinghamshire, said he was increasingly worried about the safety of his drivers.

"We have had to invest in tracking systems to tell us if the back doors have been opened," he said.

"We've had to buy new locks and beef them up as well as sealing the containers a second time with steel wire.

"It is very frightening, I've got loads of guys working for me and the migrants are running wild."

The French and British governments agreed last week to increase funding for security at the port.

But with more industrial action threatened this week it will not come soon enough.