Foreign Secretary: Migrants threaten Europe's standard of living

Around 3,000 migrants live around the tunnel entrance in a makeshift camp known as "The Jungle", making the northern French port one of the frontlines in Europe's wider migrant crisis. Reuters

A surge in migrants from Africa threatens the European Union's living standards and social infrastructure, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday, saying the bloc was unable to take in millions of people seeking a new life.

Hammond's comments, some of his most outspoken on the subject yet, underscore how the British government is ramping up its anti-immigration rhetoric in response to a spike in migrant attempts to reach Britain via the Channel Tunnel from France.

They are also part of a wider EU trend which has seen Alexis Tsipras say Greece cannot cope with the number of migrants fleeing instability in the Middle East and Africa and German calls for tighter immigration curbs.

"We have got to be able to resolve this problem ultimately by being able to return those who are not entitled to claim asylum back to their countries of origin," Hammond, speaking while visiting Singapore, told BBC TV.

"That's our number one priority."

article,article,article,article Related

Hammond said there would always be millions of Africans with "the economic motivation" to want to get to Europe and that EU laws meant migrants were "pretty confident" they could stay.

"That is not a sustainable situation because Europe can't protect itself and preserve its standard of living and social infrastructure, if it has to absorb millions of migrants from Africa," he said.

Britain's Conservative government is under pressure to show it is acting to solve what the press has dubbed "the Calais crisis" with hundreds of migrants trying nightly to scale fences around the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in France.

That has disrupted passenger and freight traffic and dominated the summer's headlines.

Some of the migrants manage to reach Britain. On Sunday, police said they had arrested 18 suspected illegal migrants found hidden in the back of a lorry in England.

But the government's increasingly shrill tone on the issue – Cameron was criticised for referring to migrants as "a swarm" – has upset charities, churchmen and left-wing politicians.

Earlier this month, Church of England Bishop Trevor Willmott told the government not to forget its humanity.

"When we become harsh with each other and forget our humanity then we end up in these stand-off positions," he told the Observer newspaper.

Hammond said the Calais crisis was far from solved.

"So long as there are large numbers of pretty desperate migrants marauding around the area there will always be a threat to the tunnel's security," he said.

related articles
Calais: How the migrant crisis shames Britain, and what we ought to do about it
Calais: How the migrant crisis shames Britain, and what we ought to do about it

Calais: How the migrant crisis shames Britain, and what we ought to do about it

Bishop blasts UK response to migrant crisis: \'Every human being matters\'
Bishop blasts UK response to migrant crisis: 'Every human being matters'

Bishop blasts UK response to migrant crisis: 'Every human being matters'

More than 200 feared dead in latest migrant sea tragedy
More than 200 feared dead in latest migrant sea tragedy

More than 200 feared dead in latest migrant sea tragedy

Songs of Praise in Calais: Finally the media listens to migrants themselves

Songs of Praise in Calais: Finally the media listens to migrants themselves

News
How a chance encounter led to an Easter song
How a chance encounter led to an Easter song

At Easter one of the lesser-known songs is “Wounded for Me”. It has an interesting backstory …

Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish
Fear and silence grip Colombian hamlet after eight Christians vanish

A Colombian hamlet is gripped by fear following the forced disappearance of eight residents - seven of them Protestant church leaders and members - after responding to orders issued by a guerrilla group earlier this month.

A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria
A decade of bloodshed: NGO report reveals more than 20,000 Christians slain in south-east Nigeria

More than 20,000 Christians have reportedly been brutally killed over the past decade across south-east Nigeria, according to a disturbing report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Catholic-inspired human rights organisation.

Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements
Cardiff Council refuses to remove logo from church advertisements

In a surprising move, Cardiff Council has refused to give in to demands from humanists to remove its logo from adverts across the city encouraging people to go to church this Easter.