Britain’s Freight Transport Association (FTA) says UK Prime Minister, David Cameron and French president, Francois Hollande, are echoing suggestions made by the haulage body to solve the continuing migrant crisis at Calais.
The 6,000 migrants currently camped in harsh conditions at a camp in Calais and desperate to reach the UK via ferries or Le Shuttle services across the English Channel, have long presented a headache for FTA and UK road haulage association drivers anxious about security issues with the former recently putting forward a five-point plan to address the issue.
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The UK Premier and French President recently met for the 34th Franco-British summit in Amiens, northern France, not far from the Calais camp, which has continued somewhat in the shadow of the huge refugee crisis engulfing Central and Southern Europe.
“Prime Minister Cameron and President Hollande have demonstrated they have understood the issue in Calais as set out in FTA’s earlier communications on the crisis at the French port,” said FTA head of European policy, Pauline Bastidon.
“Their agenda coincides with ours and reflects many of the key points proposed in the FTA five-point action plan to address the problems our members are facing.”
Included in the announcement made by Cameron and Hollande were the additional funds – GBP17m (US$24m) granted by the UK government – towards additional security measures and police forces to protect essential infrastructure and reinforce security arrangements.
The money will reportedly also go towards efforts to move migrants away from the camp in Calais to other facilities in France and will help fund joint work to return migrants who are not in need of protection to their home country.
“The additional funds will provide much needed security and FTA will campaign for part of the money to be used towards new secure parking zones for drivers in and around Calais, to ensure they and their trucks are less vulnerable,” added Bastidon.
“Moving forward the FTA will continue to work constructively with both the UK and French authorities to translate these positive announcements into concrete action.”
