Calais migrant crisis costs Britain £100,000 a day – that's £200MILLION in just five years
CASH-STRAPPED Britain is spending nearly £100,000 a day tackling the migrant crisis in Calais, the Daily Express can reveal.
Official figures show for the first time how securing the besieged port town and surrounding region is proving a huge drain on taxpayers.
Since 2010 almost £200million has been spent trying to repel those looking to sneak into the UK.
The sum lays bare the scale of the migrant threat just 20 miles off the English coast. Calais, the focus of the chaos, has been turned into a waiting room for economic migrants with 5,000 holed up in a camp dubbed the Jungle.
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Ukip MEP Mike Hookem said: “This huge sum of money has not stemmed the flow of migrants trying to get into Britain illegally and consequently must be chalked up as a waste of money. The Calais crisis is making a mockery out of our immigration and security policy and is an insult to people in the UK who are genuinely in need.”
The outlay includes £7million on fencing to surround the Eurotunnel terminal, a £2million upgrade of detection technology and boosting Border Force’s dog searching capability by £1million.
The amount spent over the past five-and-a-half years could have funded 8,000 nurses.
Lured by the prospect of jobs, benefits and free healthcare stowaways were stopped at the border at a rate of 153 a day in the first six months of the year, the Home Office said.
There were 27,755 attempts to sneak into Britain illegally between January and June.
This compares to 12,980 in the first six months of 2014 and 6,238 in 2013.
It means the number risking their lives for the chance of a new start jumped 350 per cent in just two years.
If the French were doing their job properly none of this would have occurred
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “British taxpayers will be staggered at the amount of money spent on extra security in and around Calais.
“If the French were doing their job properly none of this would have occurred.
“Asylum seekers continue to try to break into Britain because they know so many do get through.
“What we should be doing is returning asylum seekers who make it here to the last safe country they came from and in most cases that will be France.
“If we make it clear that asylum seekers making their way to Britain will be returned, the flow would dry up.
Calais is the frontline in Britain’s fight against illegal immigration.
With as many as 150 migrants arriving every day, they swell the numbers of a lawless community rife with mafia gangs and people traffickers.
During the summer knife-wielding gangs fought pitched battles trying to force their way on to British-bound trains and trucks.
The crisis prompted Home Secretary Theresa May and counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve to sign an AngloFrench agreement to make the UK a “less attractive place for illegal migrants”.
But the true scale of the burden on the public purse emerged after the Conservatives’ Lord (John) Patten demanded to know the cost of the British commitment in northern France.
The Calais Migrant Problem
In response, Home Office Minister Lord Bates said: “Since 2010 the Government has spent £196million in Calais and the surrounding locations to secure the border, which includes day-to-day activity such as carrying out passport checks on all passengers, searching for illicit goods, as well as stopping and deterring illegal migration.
“Part of this figure includes the recent investment to reinforce security through infrastructure improvements at Border Force’s controls in northern France.”
Despite her obligation to deal with the migrant flood, the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart wants to scrap the Le Touquet treaty which pushed the border across the Channel.
The deal, signed in 2003, allows British border security to be stationed at terminals in France.
If it were axed thousands of refugees would be free to cross the Channel, raising the spectre of squalid migrant camps dotted along on the English coast.
Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe said: “It is now time for the Government to urge the French to improve the security situation in Calais by breaking up camps like the Jungle and dispersing the economic migrants trying to get to Britain so the UK taxpayer can reduce the money it is paying France to keep them out.”
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “That migrants want to come to the UK speaks of our economic success in recent years, but it is a big cost to taxpayers to secure the borders at Calais.
“Hopefully our border agencies can work with the French authorities to bring that cost down while keeping people safe.”
The Home Office said: “Our strong presence in ports like Calais and our joint work with French authorities helps protect the UK from people attempting to enter the country illegally.”
