Shocking images showing migrants clinging to the roof of a lorry have revealed the desperate lengths they are prepared to go to to try to cross through the Channel Tunnel and gain entry to Britain.
Attempts to reach the UK through the French port of Calais have peaked in recent weeks, with hundreds of migrants storming the Eurotunnel terminal on consecutive nights.
Nine people have already died this year, with the most recent fatality seeing a man crushed to death.
Migrants are becoming increasingly desperate to reach the UK
Experts have explained that the problem has been hugely exacerbated by the conflict in Syria, which has seen more than half the country's entire population forced from their homes. The displacement was made worse when these refugees were displaced again from other countries where they had taken shelter. As a result some 33% of all migration into Europe last year were Syrian.
Britain has become divided over how best to handle the situation. While some have taken a tough approach others have urged the government to do more to help these refugees.
In an exclusive blog for Huffington Post UK, Yvette Cooper said:"Faced with such troubling images from the border, the temptation for any country can be to turn inwards, to become more fearful and hostile towards all those from across the seas. And that indeed is the anxiety that David Cameron's "swarm" language seems designed to escalate.
"Yet the Government has a responsibility to do the opposite."
