Following the fire overnight at the Grande-Synthe migrant camp near Dunkirk, please find below a statement from the Freight Transport Association, the UK’s largest transport trade membership association with more than 16,000 members:
“Camps are not a sustainable solution to the migrant problem,” says Pauline Bastidon, FTA’s Head of European Policy, “and the tragic fire overnight at the Grande-Synthe camp near Dunkirk has left hundreds of people, including women and children, with nowhere to go and nowhere to sleep. The French authorities need to act swiftly to rehouse the displaced people, and ensure that those arriving in the area can be safely housed and their asylum claims assessed swiftly and efficiently, to prevent further build-up of numbers in the area.
“The French Government also needs to ensure that freight operators and drivers using the routes to the Channel ports get a safe passage through the region. Our members still report cases of migrant incursion, and the recent events could exacerbate the problem. They need to be able to go through this region without having to worry about potential violence or migrants’ attempts to board lorries bound for the UK.”
