U.K. to Build Wall in France to Keep Out Migrants

The U.K. is planning to build a £1.9 million ($2.54m), 13ft-high wall in Calais, France, to stop migrants reaching the road to the port where ferries embark for the U.K.

The smooth concrete wall, which will stretch for one kilometer along the main motorway, known as the Rocade, to the Channel port, is part of a £17m ($22.74m) security plan to improve security for trucks approaching the port.

Construction work is due to begin this month and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. According to the Guardian, the wall will be built in two sections on either side of the road, protecting vehicles from migrants who regularly block the road to stop vehicles before climbing aboard to get clandestine passage to the U.K.

The Road Haulage Association’s chief executive, Richard Burnett, has criticized the plan, calling it a “poor use of taxpayers’ money”.

He said the money would be “much better spent on increasing security along the approach roads,” Sky News reports.

François Guennoc of Auberge des Migrants, a French aid group working in Calais, agreed. “When you put walls up anywhere in the world, people find ways to go round them. It’s a waste of money,” he said, according to Sky.