By Chris Philp MP

Earlier this week, I visited the French coast, and what I saw in Calais should worry us all.

Rows of tents, smoke curling from fires, life jackets hanging from migrant’s hands carried with the same casual assurance as a passport. These men (and they were men) were brazenly preparing to break our laws and break into Britain. 

The camp I walked through was home to Eritreans and Afghans. The same nationalities who now dominate Channel crossings, and whose conviction rates for sexual offences are more than twenty times those of British citizens. I passed groups huddled around makeshift stoves, among them was a man carrying a life jacket, ready for the journey.

When I told him the crossing was illegal, he shrugged, as he knew about the hotels, he knew he could work once here, and he knew there was slight chance of being sent back. That certainty, the knowledge that Britain will take him in and keep him, is what fuels the journey.

Barely, fifteen minutes into speaking with a group of migrants, another man appeared holding a curved machete. These camps are places where the rule of law has completely collapsed, where the threat is standing in front of you. These people will soon be on our streets. 

As we turned to leave, glass bottles began to strike the ground around us. More came as we reached the car, hurled after us down the track as we hurriedly left the camp.

Later, I witnessed French police openly facilitating illegal immigration. In Gravelines, northern France, a group of migrants stood with bags slung over their shoulders. The French officers among them, one gestured towards a waiting public bus, while another guided people forward in small groups, ushering them up the steps. There was no attempt to check documents, no........

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