Just half a mile from the ferry terminal in Calais, a UK-bound lorry
driver at the weekend makes the mistake of slowing down to a crawl
on the A26 Autoroute des Anglais dual carriageway.
At a signal from their fixers, around 100 illegal migrants arise from
the wooded verge where they have been concealed and try to swarm aboard
the vehicle, and others behind, desperate to find somewhere inside
or underneath they could stow away to reach the UK.
So intent are they to get to what they see as a land of easy asylum,
council housing and generous benefits that they risk being crushed
by the trucks' wheels. Some carry crowbars or knives to try to prise
open a chink in the lorries' defences.
This time the traffic speeds up again and none gets aboard. The migrants
melt back into the woodland to await the next chance of an ambush.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
In a nearby industrial area, on the Rue des Garennes, a dozen stowaways were discovered last week hiding inside an empty tanker.
Workers were about to fill it with concentrated sulphuric acid when
they heard muffled cries coming from within.
Another few seconds and the migrants, Afghans and Kosovans, would
have been horribly burnt to death.
It's just another week in the relentless assault on Britain's borders.
