Source: www.businessinsider.com - Thursday, August 20, 2015 By Johnny Cotton CALAIS, France (Reuters) - Britain will contribute 10 million euros ($11.2 million) to increased French humanitarian assistance and a fast-track asylum process for thousands of migrants camped in Calais in the hope of crossing the Channel, both countries said on Thursday. The measures, announced by British Home Secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve during a joint visit to the northern French port city, are accompanied by tighter security around the port and Channel Tunnel and combined police operations against people smugglers. "Our joint approach rests on securing the border, identifying and safeguarding the vulnerable, preserving access to asylum for those who need it and giving no quarter to those who have no right to be here or who break the law," the ministers said in a statement. For Britain and France, Calais is the focus of a wider migration crisis fueled by conflict, persecution and poverty driving hundreds of thousands to flee Syria, Libya, Sudan and other Middle Eastern and African states. Tens of thousands of migrants are arriving in Italy and Greece each week, and Germany expects asylum claims to quadruple to a record 800,000 this year. About 3,000 migrants live in makeshift encampments in Calais, with many trying each night to jump onto trucks or trains or even walk the 31-mile (50-km) undersea tunnel to Britain. Some have been killed in the attempt. Under the plans outlAll Related
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