Calais Migrants Pictured Clinging To Roof Of Lorry Leaving Eurotunnel In Kent

Desperate Calais Migrants Pictured Clinging To Roof Of Lorry
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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.

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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."

Desperate Migrants Try To Get Through Channel Tunnel
(01 of12)
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Two migrants cling to the roof of a freight truck as it leaves the Eurotunnel terminal in the earlier hours of July 31, 2015 in Folkestone, England. (credit:Peter Macdiarmid via Getty Images)
(02 of12)
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Hundreds of migrants are continuing to attempt to enter the Channel Tunnel in Calais, France and onto trains heading to the United Kingdom. (credit:Peter Macdiarmid via Getty Images)
(03 of12)
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Men run down a road leading to the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(04 of12)
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Migrants walk down a slope beside a road leading to the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(05 of12)
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A woman runs away from Gendarmerie near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(06 of12)
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Gendarmerie attempt to stop migrant near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(07 of12)
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A man runs away from Gendarmerie near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(08 of12)
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Migrants from Eritrea sit beside a lake near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(09 of12)
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People help a man climb a fence near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, Calais, France. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(10 of12)
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Men watch passing freight vehicles near the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)
(11 of12)
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Gendarmes driving vans escort migrants out of the vicinity of the Eurotunnel terminal in the early hours of July 31 in Coquelles, near Calais. (credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
(12 of12)
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A member of the Gendarmerie chases a man near the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais. (credit:Rob Stothard via Getty Images)