Should we close the Channel Tunnel ?

CYCLESPORT1
CYCLESPORT1 Posts: 471
edited August 2015 in The cake stop
A man has been killed as at least 1,500 migrants tried to enter the Channel Tunnel in Calais on Tuesday night, French police have said.

Eurotunnel says freight services are disrupted while migrants are still at the Channel Tunnel site at Coquelles.

Sections of the M20 in Kent are closed in both directions to allow extra lorry parking as part of Operation Stack.

It comes as David Cameron pledged that the UK government would do everything it could to combat the crisis.

The man who died is described as Sudanese, aged between 25 and 30.

He was probably crushed by a truck which was exiting one of the shuttles that transport vehicles through the tunnel, French police have said.

He is the ninth person to die trying to access the tunnel since June.

Close it I say !
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Comments

  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    When I empty the bath water I also throw the baby out with it.

    It needs proper policing at the Calais side, unfortunately the French police don't seem interested.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    No.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    It needs proper policing at the Calais side, unfortunately the French police don't seem interested.

    Calais is a pretty small town, I can't imagine they'd have the resources to deal with this.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    It needs proper policing at the Calais side, unfortunately the French police don't seem interested.

    Calais is a pretty small town, I can't imagine they'd have the resources to deal with this.

    It's not like the channel crossing there is new. I'm sure France as a whole has the resources to deal with anything they choose to.
  • capt_slog
    capt_slog Posts: 3,939
    Closing the exit from France isn't the issue. It's okay the French saying they can't cope, but they should be addressing the problem where the migrants enter their country and how they manage travel across it.


    The older I get, the better I was.

  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    As above. How are the migrants getting to Calais? You have to stop them at point of entry or make their own country a better place to live/work/be educated. It's not a French/English problem, it's arguably a global issue involving traffickers and a desire to get a better life
    M.Rushton
  • slowmart
    slowmart Posts: 4,474
    I think the OP has shares in the ferry companies.
    “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring”

    Desmond Tutu
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    Ah! The benefits of an open border policy EU.

    Once they are in, they are in to stay. Be grateful that we are an island.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    With a tunnel linking us.
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    As above. How are the migrants getting to Calais? You have to stop them at point of entry or make their own country a better place to live/work/be educated. It's not a French/English problem, it's arguably a global issue involving traffickers and a desire to get a better life
    This.

    Putting on my "Daily Mail" hat, electrify the security fence would help. :wink:
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • tangled_metal
    tangled_metal Posts: 4,021
    Actually finish it might help more.

    Seriously the UK government bought millions of pounds of security fence and put it up. The migrants moved their camp round a bit and there was no fence there. WTF! Let us pay for a fence to cover half the boundary that will stop them honestly! Then the Frenchies are quite happy to have a go at the Brits over not helping out. Plus they will say doing anything to the benefits system or changing immigration rules is against the european spirit and we should bugger off. Well at that I have let my darker UKIPer side out. I am not a UKIPer but I can rant a little bit like one at times.

    The answer should be no we should take our fair share of migrants coming into Europe from the outer limits. It is totally unfair to expect Greece, Italy, Spain and Eastern European EU countries to burden the responsibilities. There should be a fair sharing of the burden and a fast journey back to where they came from if that is safe to do so or another country nearby if not. France is at the mercy of a system that starts at the med and eastern europe. Once they are in the recipient countries are unable to cope so they get through their into Germany and other countries. Once out of the landing countries they get anywhere they want to. All that with people cashing in on them along the way and when they are here. Pretty sh1tty for them.

    Also, refugees from persecution I assume we all believe should be free to come here for safety and claim assylum?? Why on earth should economic migrants not get the same? Afterall it is an accident of birth that makes them migrants and not living an underrated and moaned about lifestyle that we live. Would you want to live their lives in their homeland? We moan about our lot here and how Cameron or the westminster politicos are messing up the country but we have it cushy big time. However let us close our borders and leave these people to die or starve or struggle in their own world away from ours. Let us lose what little humanity we have left.

    PS I have no humanity left and quite frankly would kick 'em all back to France or Germany. Perhaps we should hire a few jet and fly into Berlin with a load of them. Afterall it is highly likely they are turning a blind eye to the passing through of these migrants. So much for the principle of sorting them out at the place of arrival. Another EU principle selectively applied.

    PPS I may or may not hold any of these views expressed above. I do however hold the view we haven't had a thread like this since the election time I think so it is high time we re-hash all the old arguments over immigration while we have the opportunity to do so. If you do not know them then I suggest you search for the last such thread then use the efficient copy and paste technique. I am sure others here will be doing that.
  • shortcuts
    shortcuts Posts: 366
    Or we could of course just let them come in as they please until such time as this country is as bankrupt and thence as shite as where they came from!
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,424
    No, but open the minds.
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    We could always move the border checks to Dover and take responsibility rather than blaming someone else. As will be the case if we leave the EU I would suspect.
  • graham.
    graham. Posts: 862
    I don't want this to get party political but I'd really like to know why they're so desperate to get "here".
    What is the UK offering that France, Germany, Italy etc isn't?
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    I don't want this to get party political but I'd really like to know why they're so desperate to get "here".
    What is the UK offering that France, Germany, Italy etc isn't?

    A question I've never had a satisfactory answer to that isn't rhetoric.

    Although they interviewed one of migrants and he said a reason was they spoke English. But there has to be more to it than just that?
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    I don't want this to get party political but I'd really like to know why they're so desperate to get "here".
    What is the UK offering that France, Germany, Italy etc isn't?

    A question I've never had a satisfactory answer to that isn't rhetoric.

    Although they interviewed one of migrants and he said a reason was they spoke English. But there has to be more to it than just that?
    They are sold the benefits dream by the traffickers. But that is just supposition.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • verylonglegs
    verylonglegs Posts: 3,949
    It's easier to work illegally in the UK is another reason given in some articles but not sure how much truth there is in that as I've not tried to work illegally in the UK or any other country so really can't compare. We know they aren't coming here for the weather and quality low-cost housing, we can rule those two out.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    It needs proper policing at the Calais side, unfortunately the French police don't seem interested.

    Calais is a pretty small town, I can't imagine they'd have the resources to deal with this.

    It's not like the channel crossing there is new. I'm sure France as a whole has the resources to deal with anything they choose to.

    It comes down to how they use resources. The Channel crossing and its approach roads and railways are a hell of a big area to cover and to effectively police them 24 hours per day, with something like 5,000 migrants in the nearby camp wouldn't be cheap.

    Same goes for illegal immigration in general - 100,000+ people have come over the Med in the first 6 months of the year. How much would it cost to stop this happening, and would people be willing to pay higher taxes/see resources diverted from other services to stop this?
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    Closing the exit from France isn't the issue. It's okay the French saying they can't cope, but they should be addressing the problem where the migrants enter their country and how they manage travel across it.

    Once they're in the EU, it's hard to stop them, seeing as France is part of the Schengen Area and has a large black and Arab population, so it's not like the police are going to see a dark face and think "Mon dieu! 'E must be an illegal immeegront! I must arrest 'im and deport 'im immédiatement."
  • ukiboy
    ukiboy Posts: 891
    Probably yes. Why are all these unfortunate people camping out in Calais waiting to jump ship to the UK?
    They are all in a safe country, ie, France. They should claim asylum there.
    But they all want to come to Britain as the benefits system here is generous and indiscriminate...
    I remember when this country used to be normal, and what a lovely place it used to be.. These days it's totally f'ed :-0
    Outside the rat race and proud of it
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    I don't want this to get party political but I'd really like to know why they're so desperate to get "here".
    What is the UK offering that France, Germany, Italy etc isn't?

    They don't always get to choose where they go. People-smuggling is a massive and very sophisticated international trade who can organise black market work, accommodation, etc. at the other end.

    Also, are you talking about the people in Calais in particular, or immigrants in general? Because if it's the latter, we don't actually get particularly high immigration rates compared to most other western EU countries.
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    I remember when this country used to be normal, and what a lovely place it used to be.. These days it's totally f'ed :-0
    People have been repeating this for decades. If not centuries.
    It won't be long until today is the good old days.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.
  • Sirius631
    Sirius631 Posts: 991
    The only way to reduce the number of economic migrants coming out of African countries is to increase the employment prospects within those countries. European nations cannot just pump money into Africa, because the level of corruption just sucks that money into a black hole. Projects need to be set up and monitored closely by the donors.

    Another thought is of why is it necessary, when migrants in dilapidated boats are rescued in international waters, to land those rescued in Italy. They should be dumped back on African shores. They can then tell others of the lies told to them by the people traffickers.
    To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.
  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    According to our UKIP Prime minister, David Cameron, we are facing a "swarm of migrants" so a quick spray of RAID should sort it all out.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    I did wonder if we should just let a few hundred migrants board a train ... then transport them back to the med, put them on a boat and back to where they came from - the problem is you don't always know where they came from to return them ...
  • ukiboy
    ukiboy Posts: 891
    I remember when this country used to be normal, and what a lovely place it used to be.. These days it's totally f'ed :-0
    People have been repeating this for decades. If not centuries.
    It won't be long until today is the good old days.

    :D pukka! I can't wait for the day when it comes full circle and this country returns to the good old days.
    Outside the rat race and proud of it
  • chris_bass
    chris_bass Posts: 4,913
    I remember when this country used to be normal, and what a lovely place it used to be.. These days it's totally f'ed :-0
    People have been repeating this for decades. If not centuries.
    It won't be long until today is the good old days.

    :D pukka! I can't wait for the day when it comes full circle and this country returns to the good old days.

    what exactly was good about them?
    www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 25,597
    I remember when this country used to be normal, and what a lovely place it used to be.. These days it's totally f'ed :-0
    People have been repeating this for decades. If not centuries.
    It won't be long until today is the good old days.

    :D pukka! I can't wait for the day when it comes full circle and this country returns to the good old days.

    what exactly was good about them?
    Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
    The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
    I am not sure. You have no chance.
    Veronese68 wrote:
    PB is the most sensible person on here.