THE UK Government has pledged £12m to help France tackle the problem of illegal immigrants trying to enter Britain through Calais.

Security will be bolstered at the port which has seen increasing numbers of migrants gathering, and new technology is to be introduced to detect migrants hiding in lorries.

Drivers are fined €20,000 if illegal immigrants are found in their vehicles but they say the migrants openly try to break into their lorries.

Lorry parks are now ringed with razor wire and patrolled at night by guards and dogs.

But still they will attempt to cross the Channel in their droves risking life and limb trying to get to a land they see as a safe haven and full of promise.

Why? Because what is their alternative?

France believes there are 1,500 illegal immigrants in Calais. The numbers have increased by 50 percent in the past year as people flee from humanitarian crises in northern and eastern Africa and the Middle East.

Sheer desperation gets them as far as the Port of Calais where French police say they are overwhelmed by the number of asylum seekers desperate to reach Britain.

Almost all the illegal immigrants speak English.

When you live in a country where you are persecuted or tortured for your beliefs and where you constantly fear for your life and the safety of your family, breaking into the back of a lorry probably doesn’t seem such a big deal.

To have got so far that you can see the tantalising cliffs of Dover a mere 20 miles away makes it impossible to give up.

The man found in the luggage compartment of a coach bringing Gloucestershire schoolchildren back from a trip abroad was willing to take his chances.

He certainly won’t be the last.

.