Migrants told streets ‘not paved with gold’ in Britain

Migrants in Calais are being warned Britain’s streets are “not paved with gold” as part of a new £7m (€10m) initiative.

The declaration signed by Home Secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve includes a commitment of €5m per year from Britain over two years for measures to help manage migrants gathered in the French port town.

It says the two countries are “unified” in their response to a “migratory phenomenon without precedent”.

Border Force officers are already visiting camps to provide migrants with a “more dissuasive and realistic sense of life” in the UK, the agreement said.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire, who was also on the visit, said the aim was to convey the message that “the streets of the UK are not paved with gold” and “it is not a land of milk and honey”.

Philip Duffy, chief operating officer of the UK Border Force, said staff visit the camps almost every day.

“They talk to them about life in the UK,” he said.

Officers will attempt to persuade those desperate to cross the Channel that it is not easy to access benefits and healthcare in Britain.

As well as increased security around the Channel Tunnel and the new police command centre in Calais including British officers, the declaration also says the UK will provide funds for flights to return migrants to their home countries; Britain will contribute translators speaking languages including Pashtun and Tamil; Scrutiny of migrant camps will be stepped up to identify those vulnerable to trafficking; and the UK government will help reinforce capacity for processing asylum claims, with facilities being set up away from Calais.

The declaration says: “Europe is experiencing unprecedented pressure from migration. At key frontiers this phenomenon presents a serious concern.

“Our joint approach rests on securing the border, identifying and safeguarding the vulnerable, preserving access to asylum for those who need it, and giving no quarter to those who have no right to be here or who break the law.

“We want to eliminate any sense, particularly amongst criminal gangs exploiting migrants, of there being value in bringing people to Calais.”

Meanwhile, Macedonia stepped up security on its border with Greece yesterday, blocking thousands of migrants from entering and leaving them stranded on a dusty field.

The government said it is proclaiming a state of emergency on its borders and deploying troops to stem a surge of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa that has overwhelmed the economically-impoverished Balkan country.

The measure could create a huge backlog of migrants on the Greek side of the border from which some 2,000 illegally have crossed into Macedonia daily.