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Who Needs Donald Trump? UK Govt to Build Huge Anti-Refugee Wall

  • With an estimated 761 minors in the camp, authorities have come under increasing pressure to provide a long-term, sustainable solution to the crisis.

    With an estimated 761 minors in the camp, authorities have come under increasing pressure to provide a long-term, sustainable solution to the crisis. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 September 2016
Opinion

Home to between an estimated 7,000-10,000 migrants and refugees, the announcement of the wall comes amid a storm of criticism directed at British and French authorities.

The British government is set to build “a big, new wall” in Calais in a bid to prevent those fleeing war and conflict from entering the country, the U.K.’s immigration minister announced Wednesday.

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“People are still getting through. We have done the fence, now we are doing the wall,” immigration minister Robert Goodwill told the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The 13-ft. high concrete wall will stretch for a kilometer across the Rocade, the port’s main divided-highway. Construction is expected to begin later this month at a cost of US$2.7 million to the British taxpayer.

“We are going to start building this big new wall very soon as part of the £17million package we are doing with the French,” Goodwill told MPs on Tuesday.

Britain and France promised to “resolve” Calais’ refugee crisis in late August, reaching agreements on “counter-terrorism” and security strategies.

"We are committed to working together to strengthen the security of our shared border, to strongly diminish the migratory pressure in Calais and preserve the vital economic link supported by the juxtaposed controls in Calais," read a joint statement following talks in Paris between Britain’s new Home Secretary Amber Rudd and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Social media has been quick to respond to the proposed wall, with many comparing the actions of Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is proposing along the border of Mexico in the United States.

During his presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico in order to stop "racists and criminals" from entering the United States, even going as far as to say that he will make Mexico pay for it.

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After a recent visit to Mexico to meet the country's President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City, Trump said he hasn’t changed his mind and he still plans to build the wall on the border of the country.

Home to between an estimated 7,000-10,000 migrants and refugees, according to a July 2016 census by “Help Refugees,” the announcement of the wall comes amid a storm of criticism directed at British and French authorities by rights groups, as the so-called Calais "Jungle" camp suffers from a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by a French court’s decision in February to demolition the southern half of the camp.

With an estimated 761 minors in the camp, according to the same census, authorities have come under increasing pressure to provide a long-term, sustainable solution to the crisis.

On Wednesday, UNICEF urged the U.K. government to resettle the children living precariously in the so-called ‘Jungle.’ The day before, the organization published a new report titled “Uprooted: The Growing Crisis For Refugee and Migrant Children,” which indicates that a staggering 50 million children are currently uprooted across the globe.

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