Ready for the Island

Great Britain tries to block the Eurotunnel and is arguing with France about the reasons for Migration.
Benjamin Dierks, London

DIY translation from Jungle-World, Nr. 40/2001 - 26. September 2001

Only 20 Albanian fans were allowed to cheer for their team at the worldcup qualification match between Albania and UK in Newcastle at the beginning of September. The British embassy in Tirana had refused most of the applications to enter the country, claiming that Albanians might use their stay in the UK to apply for asylum.
Bearing in mind such obvious refusal of hospitability, it should not be surprising that some migrants are finding rather unconventional ways to enter the British Islands.
According to the press, hundreds of refugees are daily trying to use the Eurotunel which connects France and Great Britain between the coastal towns of Calais and Dover. At the end of August, 40 people who had already made half of the approximately 30 Kilometers were stopped by the security service of Eurotunnel and the French police and brought back to France.
Meanwhile, according to the company Eurotunnel, 100 people are stopped daily either at the entrance or inside the tunnel. 30000 incidents had been counted in 2001. At least four people died trying to jump on one of the trains who run through the Tunnel. Last week, a 25 years old Iraki was overrun by a van near Calais.

The lucky ones who complete the journey are faced with internment. Protesting against this, last week, 200 refugees in the prisons of Portsmouth and Oxfordshire went on hunger strike. Just before that, a British court had declared internment of refugees as incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights.

Most of the refugees, mostly from Afghanistan, Irak, Iran and several Kurdish regions, are housed in the refugee camp Sangatte near Calais, which is run by the Red Cross. The warehouse, built for the building of Eurotunnel, was confiscated by the French government in 1999 to house refugees from Kosovo, who were sleeping rough in the streets of Calais.

British home secretary David Blunkett and the company Eurotunnel agree that presently, the camp serves mainly as „logistic center“ for „illegal immigration“ to the UK. Last Wednesday, Blunkett demanded from his French counterpart Daniel Vaillant to close Sangatte.

Plans to relieve the camp have been around for a while. Marc Gentilini, the president of the Red Cross, states that it is completely overcrowded. Originally set up for 650 people, the camp now houses 1 600 refugees. A part from another camp in Bailleul, 60 km away, several smaller camps were being planned. But following demands of the British minister of foreign affairs, France has now assured Britain not to establish more camps near the coast.

The demand to close the camp in Sangatte due to the migrants moving towards the UK was described by Gentilini as not less of a nonsense than demanding to close the Eurotunnel itself. The Red Cross and the French government agree that closing the camp would only mean to make hundreds of people homeless.

Last Wednesday, a court in Lille refused the attempt of the company Eurotunnel to force the French government to close the camp. It contradicted the lawyer of the company, Jean-Marc Boivin, who thinks that the terminal in Coquelle is put „under siege“ by the refugees. The company is under pressure, because Blunkett sticks to his plan to introduce a 3000 Euro fee for every „illegal migrant“ who is transported in the trains of Eurostar by October 18th, a practice already common in aviation.

Since 1999, Eurotunnel has spent about 3 and a half Million Pounds for security measures. Warmth sensors and 200 cameras are surveilling the tunnel. The number of security officers was extended from 20 to 300 last year. There most recent weapon is an x-ray device, which screens vehicels at each side of the tunnel for undesired passengers.

France is mainly blaming the relatively liberal asylum law of the UK for the situation. Other than in most EU states, the UK has no legislation to carry identity cards, which would legitimise controls. Asylum seekser can apply for work permits after six months, and there is no law prohibiting British companies to employ illegal refugees. It is estimated that the informal economic sector in the UK is four times as large as in France.

Other than France, the UK offers shelter against persecution by non-state groups. Sometimes, this legitimises to neglect an agreement in the Dublin Convention, whereby refugees who have applied for asylum elsewhere within the EU have to be sent back.

As a result of the meeting of the home ministers of both countries two weeks ago, France will allow British immigration officers to enter the Sangatte camp to spread „realistic informations“ about the situation of refugees in the UK to scare off those who want to enter the country. These informations are mainly about internment and deportation.

In Britain, like in the other EU member states, it is nearly impossible to enter the country legally to apply for asylum. Visa for citizens of all states from where asylum seekers are expected, and penaltys for transport companies who don’t refuse to transport potential asylum seekers even before they start their jouneys are forcing the refugees to ever more dangerous and spectacular attempts to enter.

The situation in Sangatte, according to the British Refugee Council and other NGOs like Amnesty International, is not the reason, but merely a sympton of a messy situation. They ae demanding with Eurotunnel and the ferry companies shared standards of the asylum law in all european countries. Simon Huges, foreign affairs speaker of the british liberal democrats, states: „Asylum seekers should either be allowed to apply for asylum from abroad, or they should be offered legal entry to issue their application without risking their lives“.