Illegal UK migrants terrify ferry passengers
Ferry Online Travel News 23/07/2009
Gangs of migrants in Calais target UK holidaymakers in attempted “highway robberies”.
There are reports that the migrants, trying to get the money they need to be smuggled into the UK, are forming roadblocks and forcing motorists to stop as they try to pass from the town of Calais to the port.
Police have said that travellers are sometimes robbed at knifepoint after they have been stopped.
Calais authorities have issued a warning to the nine million Britons who pass through Calais annually, urging them to keep the windows of their cars closed and their doors locked until they have reached the safety of the ferry terminal.
According to reports, police have said they have been told by numerous holidaymakers that they have had to “run a gauntlet” of migrants attempting to block the road from the town of Calais to the ferry port.
One couple from Britain said last week that a migrant gang forced them to stop as they were driving on the port approach road.
A spokesman for the Calais police noted: “Frontier police received a report from a British couple who said the gang formed a human chain across the road to stop them.”
He added: “Around six of them then surrounded the car and waved a knife in the male driver's face and demanded cash. He threw his wallet out of the window and sped off. The refugees fled into the woods on foot.”
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