The heat is on for hauliers as fire rips through migrant camp
The knock-on effect for UK bond hauliers as a result of the fire that has reduced the migrant camp at Grande-Synthe, to the north of Dunkirk will be massive.
That’s the reaction of the Road Haulage Association to the news that the fire (linked to fighting between approximately 150 Kurds and Afghans) made 1,500 migrants ‘homeless’ in just a couple of hours.
“This is really bad news,” said RHA chief executive Richard Burnett. “Of course we sympathise with those migrants who travelled with very little and who have now been left with nothing more just clothes they stand up in.
“However,” he continued, “as the only organisation dedicated solely to the needs of UK road hauliers and it has to be their welfare that we are duty-bound to focus upon.
“Already we are seeing migrants return to the Calais area – all with the same goal; to reach the UK by whatever means possible and that usually means on the back of a truck. They have no thought for either their own safety, or of anyone else. A sudden influx of well over 1000 displaced migrants will only make what is already a bad situation much, much worse. I am greatly concerned that the only people who may come out of this well will be the people smugglers – those that make a living through human trafficking.
