UK Aims to Block Calais Migrants with “Big, New Wall”

Migrants walk in the northern area of the camp called the "Jungle" in Calais, France. Image Credit: Reuters/Charles Platiau

Donald Trump’s policy stance on building a wall on the US border to keep out Mexican illegal immigrants has resonated with UK politicians on the other side of the Atlantic.

The UK government has just unveiled plans to build a 13ft tall, GBP 2 million concrete barrier in the port town of Calais that will keep migrants from reaching the island country. Taking a page from the policy book of the billionaire Republican nominee, British Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill, declared yesterday to the public that: “People are still getting through…We are going to start building this big new wall very soon. We’ve done the fence, now we are doing a wall.”

Slated to be completed by the end of the year and to stretch slightly over half a mile long, the wall will run along the main roads where migrants and refugees place debris obstructing trucks. The migrants attempt to climb aboard the UK-bound vehicles in order to be given free passage to the country.

Pros and Cons

Critics of the decision consider the building of the wall to be a largely symbolic gesture that signals the UK is moving in an abrupt new anti-migrant direction. The announcement comes just a few months after the UK’s Brexit “Yes” decision which was largely successful due to strong anti-immigrant stirrings in the UK.

The local Road Haulage Association dubbed the building of the Calais wall as a waste of public money. Refugee organization experts, in turn, warn that the wall will be rendered largely ineffectual as professional people smugglers take advantage of the huge structure to haul in even more people across the border.

Supporters of the measure state the building of the wall and checkpoints are necessary in light of the dangers posed to truck drivers and locals who repeatedly make the trip to the UK from France. Drivers report that migrants construct roadblocks, throw Molotov cocktails and brandish chainsaws and machetes in bids of intimidation.

Proponents of a more humane treatment have argued the port city, which is near the major French refugee camp known as “the Jungle,” should have official ‘hotspots’ with free in-person interpretation services that allow refugees seeking asylum in Britain to have their immigration papers processed on French soil. The idea is to make passage safer and legal to people who don’t feel they have much options for their future.

Contradictory Policy

The Calais wall announcement also notably contradicts an officially pledged political commitment to helping refugees by granting them safe, legal access to the UK. Exactly one year ago, David Cameron openly stated that Britain must “live up to its moral responsibility” and welcome 20,000 Syrian refugees.

According to recent news, only 2,646 have been settled as part of the Syrian refugee acceptance scheme due to “tragic bureaucratic failure.” The city of Liverpool, for instance, has only received one Syrian refugee when it has invited to house up to 100.

At the same time, fewer than 3,000 refugees have been accepted under the British Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme when almost one million Syrian refugees have applied for asylum in Europe, The Telegraph reports.

Clearly, the UK government has adopted a contradictory stance to refugees. With desperation as their fuel, migrants and refugees will continue to find ways to overcome the Calais wall barrier in order to find an exit point to their despair. Ironically, British politicians in power have fallen prey to the same criticisms of Trump’s Mexican wall policy in the United States – criticisms that state the wall will be largely ineffectual and expensive to maintain.