Call for troops to stop stowaways

Tunnel trains have been a target for asylum seekers

The British army should be sent to France to stop the tide of stowaways boarding Channel Tunnel freight services, it has been suggested.

The call for troops at Calais came from the Rail Freight Group, which claims freight businesses are losing up to £8m a week because of the failure to stop illegal immigrants using the tunnel to reach the UK.

Immigration officials are little match for waves of hundreds of desperate people seeking to invade the terminal each night

Rail Freight Group chairman Lord Berkeley

The group also warned that 8,000 jobs could be lost if the problem was not resolved urgently.

It says the British and French Governments have not done enough to stem the tide of up to 50 illegal immigrants crossing the channel each night by freight trains.

The French rail company SNCF has suspended nearly all its cross-Channel services, because of a lack of policing at its depot near Calais.

Rail Freight Group chairman Lord Berkeley called on the British Government to send in 1,000 soldiers with a few miles of barbed wire, and orders to keep people out of the tunnel at all times.

Services suspended

"We ask the British Government that if the French won't protect and keep open our trade routes, it must do it for them."

He continued: "The army could be there in a week and they could do it jointly with the French army."

A group of asylum seekers found in a lorry

But he said the British Government had so far only sent out four extra immigration officials.

"Sadly, they do not meet the illegals and are little match for waves of hundreds of desperate people seeking to invade the terminal each night."

The Channel Tunnel has seen the number of freight trains fall from 15 a day to about one or two.

Blair's plea

Prime Minister Tony Blair has already written to the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin demanding a greater police presence.

The French authorities say they will build a fence to keep the refugees out but it could take six months to complete.

The rail link's operator Eurotunnel has already asked a French court to shut down a Red Cross holding centre for refugees near the entrance to the tunnel.

The joint British-French company - says the Sangatte camp is responsible for the rising numbers of people stowing away on its trains.

But it says it had prevented more than 18,500 illegal immigrants from reaching Britain in the first half of this year.