Violence at Sangatte

Violence followed increased security at the tunnel

Just outside Calais, near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, around 1,000 people are housed in a makeshift Red Cross camp at Sangatte. Most of them make repeated attempts to reach the UK by getting onto cross-Channel trains.

There had been a huge increase in the number of people being caught trying to board the trains. The Home Office was demanding that Eurotunnel should prevent refugees entering the country illegally on their trains and said that they should have to pay the same £2,000 fines that, for example, lorry hauliers do when stowaways are found.

Eurotunnel said the Home Office could not legally demand this, but said they were increasing security at the French terminal.

As our reporter Terry Stiastny discovered, the increased security led to violence among the refugees in Sangatte, as the competition to get into Britain became fiercer.

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To listen to the report, click on the link above.