The challenges facing hauliers and drivers bound for the Channel Tunnel or the Port of Calais have been apparent from some time. The punishment for inadvertently transporting migrants are high, and set to get even tougher.
In some cases, vehicles have even been damaged by migrants desperate to slow down lorries by throwing objects at them.
Following a spate of attacks on lorries in Spring 2021, Poland’s Transport and Logistics Association criticised the French police for being too passive as regards attacks and break ins on lorries.
Now French hauliers are echoing those sentiments and hoping to lobby for more policing on roads leading to key ports.
Jean-Pierre Devigne, boss of RDV Transports, who have a base near Calais, told local newspaper Nord Littoral that his company had installed CCTV and employed security staff to try and secure its vehicles. However, he added that the security problems his company faces are out on the road rather than at the yard:
“The problem does not come from the warehouse or the car park. Everything gets complicated when the drivers hit the road. Migrants are stationed at the roundabout and as soon as a lorry slows down or there’s an opportunity to board, they swoop in – sometimes even into lorries that aren’t heading for England.”
The issue hasn’t gone unnoticed by Sébastien Riviera, secretary general of FNTR’s Pas de-Calais branch, who told Nord Littoral that extra policing is necessary at points where trucks must slow down near the Port of Calais:
“It is a concern for entrepreneurs in the area. The attempts of migrants lead to problems and financial losses when, for example, they destroy a tarpaulin to enter a trailer. We must strengthen the police presence in the area, with patrols but also stationary crews near slowdown areas, to deter migrants from getting into the trucks.”
According to Nord Littoral, the proposal for extra policing was to be discussed during a meeting of the Calais regional authorities today (Wednesday).
Photo: Romainberth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
