Britain has announced new measures to tackle illegal
migrants by forcing landlords to evict them, as a growing number of migrants in
Calais continued their attempts to enter the UK via the undersea cross-channel
Eurotunnel.
Under the measures announced on Monday, British landlords
who do not remove illegal migrants, or who do not check their immigration
status before renting them a property, could be jailed for up to five years.
The move, announced by Greg Clark, Britain’s communities
secretary, is set to be included in a new immigration bill to be debated by the
British parliament in coming months.
Britain also announced that another 100 guards would be
placed on duty at the tunnel’s terminal in Calais, while UK border officials
were to begin working inside the control room of the tunnel.
The migrants continued their attempts to cross the English
channel via a freight train to Britain on Monday night.
Another 1,700 attempts were made by migrants in Calais to
cross via the tunnel overnight on Sunday, according to French police sources.
The number of people making the attempt was a major increase on the past few
nights when there were only a few hundred.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the
Eurotunnel’s reinforced fence in Calais, said the attempts continued “despite
quite a heavy police presence”.
“Migrants at night try and hop over this fence and literally
try to grab hold of a train as it goes by in some instances. That’s why we’ve
seen so many deaths in recent months,” our correspondent said.
“The French authorities have put in extra lighting, we just
heard a helicopter going over and there are police scattered around this area.”
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