UK to build ‘big new wall’ in Calais to stop migrants

Construction will begin soon on a “big new wall” in the French port city of Calais to prevent refugees and migrants from entering Britain, the UK has announced.

The four-meter (13 foot) high wall is part of a £17 million ($23 million) deal struck between Britain and France earlier this year to try to block migrants from crossing the English Channel.

“We’ve done the fence. Now we’re doing a wall,” British Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill announced at a government hearing on Tuesday.

It is the latest attempt to enhance border security in Calais, home to a controversial makeshift camp known as “The Jungle,” where thousands of displaced people live in squalid conditions.

The camp sprawls over about 40 acres of sand dunes once used for landfill, with different nationalities in different sections.

Mohammed is from Sudan. "Life is very hard in Sudan," he says. "I want to go to England to get a good education. There is very good education in England and I already speak English."

Some local residents, resigned to staying in the camp at least semipermanently, have taken jobs. This is Alpha, from North Africa, who has become the local builder. He uses materials donated by local French people.

A local charity hands out food. People cover up their faces when the cameras are around because they don't want their families at home to see them in these conditions. Many people tell their families they are doing well in Europe.

The hospital tent is run by Medecins du Monde. They see many broken arms and legs, as well as cuts and scrapes after people have tried to climb into trucks and over fences. They are also seeing scabies and respiratory infections from the living conditions in the camp and the dust.

The Eritrean/Ethiopian Christian Orthodox church in the camp is made from materials donated by local people including local churches. Around 100 people pray here every day, according to the pastor, who is a migrant himself.

A sign reads "no credit" in three languages. Shopkeepers don't give loans to customers who they know might be on a truck across the English Channel the next day.

The local school, where migrants can learn French, recently opened.

Saeed is from Afghanistan. "I want to go now to England," he says. "Maybe I get some chance there to keep some opportunity for my life. I have a future, I'm 25 years old. England gives me more opportunity, because you can work there. In France you cannot work."

Desperate, determined and aiming for England

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The camp is notorious for being a major transit point for migrants, who often hop onto the back of UK-bound cargo trucks in the hopes of entering the country illegally. Many in “The Jungle” are reluctant to register as refugees in France because their preferred destination is Britain.

Despite current security measures – including a fence – Goodwill acknowledged that some people were still managing to get through to the UK.

“The security we’re putting in at the ports is being stepped up with better equipment. We’re going to start building this big new wall very soon as part of the £17 million package that we’re doing with the French,” he said.

The wall will be built along both sides of a 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) stretch of road approaching the Calais ferry port, according to the UK Home Office.

Truck drivers drive from Loon Plage to Calais.

But British truck drivers criticized the wall as a “poor use of taxpayers’ money.”

Richard Burnett, head of the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said security levels needed to be improved not just within the port perimeter, but in the surrounding areas up to a distance of 5 kilometers (3 miles).

“It is imperative that the money to pay for a wall would be much better spent on increasing security along the approach roads,” he said. Currently, drivers are advised they should not to stop within 150 miles of the port.

Burnett said the RHA sympathized with the Calais businesses and residents affected by the influx of migrants, but said he was focused on the “drivers who now accept that physical threats are just a part of the job.”

“This is morally wrong and cannot be allowed to continue,” he said.

The wall is due to be completed by the end of this year.

Additional reporting by CNN’s Simon Cullen.