Britain's 'big Calais wall' plan criticized

LONDON

Britain announced Wednesday plans to build a “big new wall” in the French port of Calais to prevent migrants and refugees jumping on trucks heading for the U.K.

The four-meter high wall, which will reportedly cost £1.9 million ($2.54 million), was criticized by the haulage industry as a waste of resources.

Richard Burnett, the chief executive of the U.K.’s Road Haulage Association, said the proposal “would be a poor use of taxpayers’ money”.

He told Sky News on Wednesday that the money would be “much better spent on increasing security along the approach roads”.

U.K. immigration minister Robert Goodwill said the wall was part of a package of joint British-French security measures worth £17 million ($22.8 million).

“The security that we are putting in at the port is being stepped up with better equipment,” he told the U.K. parliament’s Home Affairs committee on Tuesday.

“We are going to start building this big new wall very soon. We've done the fence, now we are doing a wall.

Hundreds of migrants hoping to enter the U.K. are camped in wasteland outside Calais in a site colloquially known as “the Jungle”.

Earlier this week a go-slow protest to demand the closure of the so-called Jungle caused major travel chaos on roads near the northern port.

The A16 motorway -- the main artery for freight and passengers heading for Britain either via the Channel Tunnel or the Calais port -- was blocked as hundreds of trucks and tractors drove slowly to clog transport routes.

Calais residents, shopkeepers, police, labor unionists and farmers also formed a human chain across the road leading to the ferry port.

Earlier this month, on a visit to Calais, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France was “determined” to totally dismantle the camp.