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Construction of $2.5m ‘Great Wall of Calais’ begins this month

September 7, 2016 at 12:54 pm

Britain and France will put £17 million ($22.8 million) into tightening security in Calais, announced UK Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill, including building a wall to stop refugees and migrants climbing aboard lorries and making the journey across the Channel.

The wall, which locals have dubbed “the Great Wall of Calais”, will be one kilometre long and four metres high and will cost £1.9 million ($2.5 million) to build. It will sit alongside steel barriers, fencing and razor wire that has already been put in place.

The concrete will be smooth, to curb attempts to climb it. Likewise, trees will not be planted on the outside in case they are used as footholds to scale the wall.

Around 10,000 migrants and refugees fleeing persecution and war, many from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are stuck in the Jungle camp in the French northern port town of Calais. In the camp people live in makeshift tents with rats, dirty water and very little food. French authorities have made several attempts to shut down the camp.