European Haulage company E.M.Rogers has said one of its trucks was attacked by migrants using iron bars and breeze blocks in Calais on Thursday evening. The driver of the vehicle was understandably shaken up by the alarming incident.
Ed Rogers, Director at E.M Rogers Ltd, revealed details of the attack yesterday on social media.
Posting on Facebook, Mr Rogers described the incident as “disgraceful” and said the driver “was totally shaken up” as a result of the attack. He also stated that the driver could even have been killed had he not stopped. Fortunately, there has been no word of the driver suffering injury.
In another post on Instagram, E.M Rogers Transport wrote that iron bars and breeze blocks had been used in the attack.
Posted by Bouda Petrisor on Thursday, 13 May 2021
Although no video footage of the attack on Mr Rogers’ truck has surfaced yet, footage uploaded to Facebook yesterday shows what a number of lorry drivers had to deal with when navigating a road near Calais in the early hours of Friday morning.
The video, taken from a Romanian trucker’s dashcam, shows migrants throwing heavy objects at a passing truck and breaking into the trailer of another lorry.
Speaking to BBC Radio Essex back in February, RHA Managing Director Rod McKenzie called for the local law enforcement authorities in France to do more to stop people smuggling and attacks on drivers:
Clearly, if you see this sort of thing going on the you should report it to the relevant authorities, and I know that road hauliers wouldn’t hesitate to do this. But there is another model of operation that is used by these criminal gangs who are exploiting these migrants. And that is the threat of force to lorry drivers. What I’m talking about in very simple terms is a roadblock on a road in northern France. The lorry has to stop for the roadblock. The driver is then approached by a group of men with baseball bats, who threaten to beat his brains out if he doesn’t allow some migrants to go in the back. That’s a very difficult circumstance, I think we can all appreciate that. Now, that driver needs to be given support. He needs to be given support by the local law enforcement authorities to stop this sort of thing happening. But you cannot take on a gang armed with baseball bat who are threatening your life. And that is a very difficult dilemma.
News of the attacks on trucks and their drivers on Thursday evening will understandably see the road transport industry repeat those calls.
However, for the drivers facing the threat of violence on a regular basis while making cross-channel crossings, extra policing and security can’t come soon enough.
Photo credit: Ed Rogers / E.M Rogers Transport