Today, a migrant died after 1,500 migrants attempted to storm the Chanel tunnel connecting France to England. This comes off the back of 37,000 foiled attempts to cross the Chanel since January this year.
We are now staring to see the beginnings of a massive global migrant crisis. Already, thousands have drowned this year on the way to Europe, paying thousands to be smuggled on leaky boats. In our own backyard, over one thousand refugees drowned under the watch of the former Gillard/Rudd Labor Government.
The migrant crisis in Calais, France, has escalated to the point where the Mayor of the city, Natacha Bouhart has called for a “summit of ministers and travel officials to find a solution to the migrant crisis.”
“She told radio station France Info that ‘global hypocrisy’ was preventing the problems being tackled.”
“Ms Bouchart has previously said Britain was attracting’ migrants as it had a ‘much more favourable’ benefits system.”
It is the prospect of free government benefits, the Mayor of Calais highlights, that are luring migrants, many of them to their death. My co-editor David Hiscox raised this issue back in May, and it seems some leaders are now starting to cotton on.
The global migrant crisis with is now gathering pace cannot be resolved by pious moral posturing, nor by naively deregulating immigration for which the consequences would be catastrophic.
We need to bite the bullet, and start addressing migration as the global issue that it is.
