UK, France set to announce migrant crisis command center

PanARMENIAN.Net - Britain and France were to announce a new "command and control center" Thursday, Aug 20, for tackling smuggling gangs in Calais, where thousands of migrants desperate to cross the Channel are living in slum-like conditions, AFP reports.

The northern French port has dominated the British media this summer as refugees make endless attempts to enter the Channel Tunnel and reach Britain, some paying for it with their lives.

Making her first trip to Calais since the crisis, which first made headlines in 1999, British interior minister Theresa May was due to sign a new accord with her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve.

As part of the deal -- due to be signed around midday -- the Home Office said Thursday that British police officers will be deployed to Calais to combat gangs smuggling migrants and refugees across the Channel.

Led by one British and one French senior commander, the officers will work in a "command and control centre" to be built near the Eurotunnel entrance, the Home Office said ahead of May's visit.

The deal includes extra French policing units, additional freight searches, and making the railhead in Calais more secure through fencing, security cameras, flood lighting and infrared detection technology.

It will also boost humanitarian assistance for the migrants in a bid to ease the desperate conditions in Calais.

Some 3,000 people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia are camped in Calais attempting to get to Britain, where many already have family and work is perceived as easier to find. At least 10 people have been killed since June trying to make the crossing.

Britain has pledged £22 million (31 million euros, $34 million) so far towards improving security at the French end of the Channel Tunnel.

Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel said the number of attempts to breach the undersea rail link had fallen to around 150 a night this week, from a high of 1,700 in late July. The number includes multiple attempts by the same refugees.

The numbers trying to reach Britain are a tiny fraction of those entering other European countries, particularly Germany, which said this week it expects a new record of 800,000 asylum seekers in 2015 -- far more than the 500,000 initially expected.