Overnight migrant entry attempts spike to 1700

  • 04/08/2015
The 1700 attempts represented a major increase from the last few nights when only a few hundred were registered (Reuters)
The 1700 attempts represented a major increase from the last few nights when only a few hundred were registered (Reuters)

Migrants in Calais made around 1700 attempts overnight to penetrate the Channel Tunnel premises in a bid to get to England, French police sources say.

Of the 1700 attempts, some 1000 were "pushed back" by authorities and 700 were intercepted within the 650-hectare Channel Tunnel site, police added.

An officer was hit in the face by a stone apparently thrown by a Sudanese migrant, who was arrested. The policeman was taken to hospital for stitches.

The 1700 attempts represented a major increase from the last few nights when only a few hundred were registered.

The chaos at Calais spiked last week when more than 2000 attempts were made to breach the Eurotunnel defences and one person was killed, a Sudanese man in his 30s who was apparently crushed by a truck.

At least 10 people have died since June in the rush to sneak into England, seen by migrants as an "Eldorado".

French police have bolstered their presence with 120 additional officers, which appears to be reducing the number of nightly attempts to storm the Eurotunnel premises.

The issue has become a cross-Channel political hot potato, with British Prime Minister David Cameron coming under fire for comments in which he referred to "swarms" of people seeking to get into the country.

Meanwhile a 27-year-old Moroccan man has suffocated to death while trying to illegally enter Spain hidden inside a suitcase in the trunk of a car.

The man's older brother appears to have tried to smuggle him into Spain by ferry.

The older man, aged 34, legally boarded the ferry linking Melilla, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa, and Almeria in southern Spain with a car on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

During the crossing he noticed that his brother was not breathing and alerted the ferry's staff.

Crew members as well as emergency services workers in the port of Almeria tried in vain to resuscitate the man.

Police have charged the man's brother with involuntary manslaughter.

AFP