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  There has always been two sides to this particular problem and Bern is right to look at it from the refugees perspective. I've no doubt there are some very sorry tales they could tell of the hardships they have had to endure.
  
  The point is, though, that the EU's border controls are totally ineffective and, because the majority of refugees are trying to get to UK, other EU nations have little incentive to strengthen their borders or provide facilities for those seeking asylum to make their claim.
  
  It has been left to the UK, or so it seems, to provide an effective border force which results in the problem being dumped in the laps of the French by default - and they want nothing to do with them either. Over the years I have seen what happens to at least some of those would-be immigrants that get picked up on the motorway heading to the channel ports in France; they get bundled into a mini-bus and taken back to the French/Belgian border and released into Belgium. Likewise the Belgian police then pick them up and bus them back to the French border so they can have another go at getting into Britain from Calais or Dunkerque.
  
  For truckers such as Guzzler and myself Calais has become a distinctly inhospitable place to stop, be it for fuelling or an overnight rest break. Getting caught up in the French equivelent of Op. Stack can be very unnerving too. I've been caught out on the wrong side of the channel only once in the past year or so (more by luck than judgement) and you just cannot take any sort of rest while you're queued up or you run a very real risk or acquiring unwanted passengers despite a fairly obvious police presence on such occasions.

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