Calais Migrants ?

Wooie1958

Wooie1958

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What`s the situation with the migrants when coming out of the ferry terminal at Calais ?
 
Wooie1958 said:
What`s the situation with the migrants when coming out of the ferry terminal at Calais ?
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You mean you are heading into France.Well they are not going to bother you in that direction surely.They only want to go in the direction of good old Blighty..
 
About 40 landed at the south coast over the weekend, I said Preston is in that direction.
 
So last year the ones that ran across our carriageway to get to the HGV`s going into Calais were a figment of my imagination then were they ?

It was a genuine question and not a random thought that popped into to my mind.
 
Ive never seen a single one in all the years we have been motorhoming apart from the time we visited the Jungle by accident on the scooter. :D
 
last year when returning to UK I had two try and stow away on my RV at Cite Europe. They only want to go one direction so when going away from UK not a factor , as they are usually on other carriageway. HTSH
 
I stopped at Pidou once and watched two blokes climb under the sheet covering the load on a lorry. I found the driver and told him, his reply was "I don't care I'm on my way to Gibraltar". So perhaps you should worry.
 
mickymost said:
You mean you are heading into France.Well they are not going to bother you in that direction surely.They only want to go in the direction of good old Blighty..
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Might mean the Brit. expat migrants coming "home to Blighty" for the summer escaping the Spanish heat,
some of them can be bothersome!
 
barryd said:
Ive never seen a single one in all the years we have been motorhoming apart from the time we visited the Jungle by accident on the scooter. :D
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You`ve been very very lucky then, we`ve not done a trip yet that has been completely migrant free with some years worse than others.

The worst was 4 years back just before all the security fencing went up, when we got warned about them by the workers on the car decks whist waiting to disembark.

Keep windows the shut, make sure the doors are locked, keep up with the traffic and even if you hit one don`t stop was the " off the record " advice.

It was like Armageddon :scared: debris and tree branches everywhere, migrants running every which way and lots of Gendarmerie :scared: :scared:

They were running across our carriageway to get to the HGV`s on the other carriageway that had stopped or slowed right down.

Scared the shyte out of the wife because i sure we clipped one whilst doing nearly 50MPH and if we didn`t it must have missed them by a whisker.
 
We prefer the Tunnel anyway

But have only seem some in the distance.
All the lay-byes on the approaches to Calais are shut.

We camp at least 20 miles from Calais and usually it is 50.

So never noticed a problem (touch wood).

Perhaps ****** has put them off OOPS the B word slipped out
 
barryd said:
Ive never seen a single one in all the years we have been motorhoming apart from the time we visited the Jungle by accident on the scooter. :D
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As Allah is my witness, and not to make any kind of a point just observations, in the last couple of years ie since the grande Calais migrant clearout I've seen just a handful of migrants on the outskirts of Calais, limited to the major roads.
But in most previous years I've witnessed a few dozens mainly in Cite Europe M/H parking area (domiciled in the adjacent tree copse), one time a couple of half hearted attempts at breaking into a caravan and a motorhome, and on the major roads, at the ferry terminal itself, attempting (and with some success) at breaking in to curtainsiders.

About 6 or 8 years? ago there were 150 to 200 occupied tents squeezed to on a grassed area on the road approach from Calais Centreville just before the Ferry Terminal itself. Portacabin bogs and charity canteens nearby saw possibly hundreds. Lasted maybe 2 or 3 years before being cleared.

That's the rough extent of my experience based on 2 or 3 overnights in November and 2 or 3 nights March
every year since sometime in the last century, just to give things some context.

Why 2 or 3 nights....friends nearby.

Jack Straw went to Dover for a photo shoot back in the day. The first truck door he opened produced
a migrant, remember that? He obviously was luckier than you! Point is, generalisations cannot be made
from limited number of experiences.
 
jagmanx said:
But have only seem some in the distance.
All the lay-byes on the approaches to Calais are shut.

We camp at least 20 miles from Calais and usually it is 50.

So never noticed a problem (touch wood).

Perhaps ****** has put them off OOPS the B word slipped out
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I would try the tunnel if it wasn`t for the ridiculous prices they quote me :scared:

I can get P&O Dover to Calais ( 7.5m motorhome, 0 kids, 0 pets ) for less than half the price of the tunnel and this time £10 each way free fuel cashback :dance:

And that`s going at sensible o`clock, none of this 1, 2 or even 3am malarky for us.
 
Not that many they are all at the local boat sales place buying new dingies and outboards. Those seem to be piling up in the HMRC warehouse now, a few everyday
 
When we came back from Spain last Nov we Parked on Calais Sea front in a spanking new car park(all lit up)
We were only there to pick up some grub with no intension of staying or leaving the Van unattended but were a bit early so we sat and read our Kindles(so no need for interior lights)
Had not been there too long before I clocked a young guy walk past the front of van and once he was seaward side he disappeared round the back and did not reappear
I gave it a minute before I went out and pulled the Scrote out from under the van by his leg and told him to "do one"!
As he walked off several others suddenly materialised from behind various cars and walked of with him!
Would have been interesting if he had managed to hang underneath undetected to find we had just arrived from port and were heading onto A16
 
daygoboy said:
As Allah is my witness, and not to make any kind of a point just observations, in the last couple of years ie since the grande Calais migrant clearout I've seen just a handful of migrants on the outskirts of Calais, limited to the major roads.
But in most previous years I've witnessed a few dozens mainly in Cite Europe M/H parking area (domiciled in the adjacent tree copse), one time a couple of half hearted attempts at breaking into a caravan and a motorhome, and on the major roads, at the ferry terminal itself, attempting (and with some success) at breaking in to curtainsiders.

About 6 or 8 years? ago there were 150 to 200 occupied tents squeezed to on a grassed area on the road approach from Calais Centreville just before the Ferry Terminal itself. Portacabin bogs and charity canteens nearby saw possibly hundreds. Lasted maybe 2 or 3 years before being cleared.

That's the rough extent of my experience based on 2 or 3 overnights in November and 2 or 3 nights March
every year since sometime in the last century, just to give things some context.

Why 2 or 3 nights....friends nearby.

Jack Straw went to Dover for a photo shoot back in the day. The first truck door he opened produced
a migrant, remember that? He obviously was luckier than you! Point is, generalisations cannot be made
from limited number of experiences.
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Well exactly. For every motorhomer that reports an issue with migrants over the past decade or so there will be thousands that have not had an issue or witnessed an incident. Maybe its the time of day we travel I dunno or where we stay the night before. We generally stay around Wissant area so never a problem there and we usually leave around 9-10am in the morning, its always quiet. When we did end up in the Migrant camp all the migrants we came across and an English woman supporting them seemed pretty decent people really.
 
Seeing them and having issues with them are two different things.
Since the camp started I have not done one crossing when I haven't seen any. Sometimes a few, sometimes quite a few, sometimes loads. I've never had a problem/issue with any of them though. Have seen people who have though, and as far away as services on the E42 near the Spy junction. Theres a chance I'd be doing the same in their position.
 
barryd said:
Well exactly. For every motorhomer that reports an issue with migrants over the past decade or so there will be thousands that have not had an issue or witnessed an incident. Maybe its the time of day we travel I dunno or where we stay the night before. We generally stay around Wissant area so never a problem there and we usually leave around 9-10am in the morning, its always quiet. When we did end up in the Migrant camp all the migrants we came across and an English woman supporting them seemed pretty decent people really.
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So I take it you are not implying anything in your post #6, you are just making a simple statement of fact based on your personal limited experience. If so fair enough.

Likewise my experience, albeit based on about 30 three day separate occasions to flesh and put things in context, make of it what you will.

Similar vein, I regularly read posts reporting that a wildcamping area just visited is ok, sure mate you'll have no
trouble, police not bothered. And yet I know for a fact all they've experienced is a rare lucky 1 or 2 day window
of opportunity, the rest of the time the place is overrun with battle hardened cops and the anti m/home psychotic
segment of the local population (slight exaggeration!),
 
In the last 8 years never seen any near Dunkirk Port. But as I have posted before, I believe that is because there is only a ferry every 2 hours, so no queueing/slow traffic, so little chance for them to get aboard a vehicle before they are checked-in.
 
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