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150 migrants tried to board vehicles leaving France to Britain through the Channel Tunnel as more than 3,000 migrants are camped in the port town.
More than 150 migrants disrupted overnight the Channel Tunnel at the Calais port town in France connecting the United Kingdom and France, as they broke the perimeter fences and tried to enter the vehicles heading to the channel, officials said Saturday.
"At around 7 p.m. (18:00 GMT) on Friday there were migrants all around the perimeter trying to break through the fences," the Eurotunnel spokesman told Reuters news agency. "There was a lot of disruption." He added that the traffic was halted, trips were delayed and canceled but operations were back to normal two hours later.
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The spokesperson added that there were constant disruptions every night as more than 3,000 migrants, mostly from the Africa and the Middle East, are camping at the northern port town seeking to get to the U.K..
Many of those immigrants want to get to Britain because they speak English, have relatives and family connection, or believe they have a better chance at finding jobs there.
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On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera reported that French charities were distributing food supplies and other aid to those camped at Calais. The aid groups said that the French government's response to the crisis was not enough and thus they had to intervene. This marks the first time in which French charities operated on French soil.
European countries have been in deadlock over plans to confront the growing numbers of migrants from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa who are crossing the Mediterranean sea to Europe.
A report by the United Nations refugee agency said that in the first six months of 2015 alone, some 137,000 migrants and refugees mostly fleeing war, conflict, and persecution have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe via Italy, Spain, and Greece.
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Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers agreed in late June to send military ships for intelligence purposes to pave the way for future operations to halt the smuggling boats by seizing and destroying them.
However, the EU countries are yet to agree on a plan to share the burden of more than 40,000 immigrants, who are now in Italy, Greece and Spain, among the reset of the 28 countries in the bloc.
Western Failure to Host Refugees
