UK
will soon start construction on a "big new wall" in the French port
city of Calais to prevent refugees and migrants from entering Britain.
The four-meter (13 foot) high wall
is part of a £17 million ($23 million) deal struck between Britain and France
earlier this year to try to block migrants from crossing the English Channel. "We've
done the fence. Now we're doing a wall," British Immigration Minister
Robert Goodwill announced at a government hearing on Tuesday.
It is the latest attempt to enhance
border security in Calais, home to a controversial makeshift camp known as
"The Jungle," where thousands of displaced people live in squalid
conditions.
The camp is a major transit point
for migrants, who often hop onto the back of UK-bound cargo trucks in the hopes
of entering the country illegally. Despite current security measures --
including a fence -- Goodwill acknowledged that some people were still managing
to get through to the UK. "The security we're putting in at the ports is
being stepped up with better equipment. We're going to start building this big
new wall very soon as part of the £17 million package that we're doing with the
French," he said.
The wall will be built along both
sides of a 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) stretch of road approaching the Calais ferry
port, according to the UK Home Office.
