ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now there is no better word to describe recent events in Calais than chaos.  First there were cancellations and miles of tailbacks caused by striking ferry workers, then dozens of migrants tried to storm the Channel Tunnel causing delays and further disruption.  Bearing the brunt of the chaos, and there is signs of more of it to come, are haulage firms and lorry drivers and I’m joined now by the Chief Executive of the Road Haulage Association, Richard Burnett.  Richard has just returned from visiting some of those migrant camps in and around Calais and a very good morning to you, Mr Burnett.  What have you seen, what’s your impression and what does it mean for your members?  

RICHARD BURNETT: For me I’ve seen it at first hand, I’ve witnessed it.  I flew out there on Tuesday at the height of the chaos, witnessed it from the air so we could see exactly what was going on.  The number of vehicles that were actually on the ground was significant, thousands, we’re talking about 5000 in Dover, certainly in Calais there were probably another three or four thousand vehicles and the impact on the industry just from a financial perspective has been enormous but also the security risks to our drivers in those queues is also significant.  

DM: We hear these are desperate people, trying to find places in some cases on these trucks, we’re hearing about the intimidation and threats, what have you been hearing?

RICHARD BURNETT: I guess I didn’t see that intimidation at first hand because what was interesting about Tuesday was the Port of Calais was closed, the link road that takes you from the main drag into Calais to the port as empty, right next to the migrant camp, so the migrants were in the camp waiting effectively for the action to kind of cease.  I took the opportunity to talk to drivers that were there in the queues and talk at first hand and their stories are very powerful.  These guys are actually facing migrants every single day, groups of ten, twenty migrants looking to get in their vehicles but also using threatening behaviour.  There were examples of them using knives, iron bars, we even had an example of a driver who had a gun pulled on him so for us …

DM: So what are your fears?  With that kind of tooling up as they call it, what are your fears about what might happen?

RICHARD BURNETT: Well my fear is that somebody is going to lose their life.  It is getting to an unprecedented level, we’re seeing an increase in the number of migrants who are trying to get through, we are seeing an increase in terms of those actually getting through and there is organised crime that is sitting behind this as well so for me we need action, we need action from the UK government to support the bid that we’re making to say we need more people on the ground, we need more police and if the French authorities can’t put police there then we’re saying maybe the French army because we have to protect our drivers and we have to protect those who are doing their day to day jobs.

DM: So it is French territory as we know, you are saying you want the UK government to put more pressure on the French to take whatever means necessary because we’ve seen it for ourselves on some of the footage, the riot police, the gendarmerie standing around while bad things are happening.

RICHARD BURNETT: Yes, that’s certainly something I witnessed on Tuesday while I was there, the gendarmerie were effectively sitting in vans or standing around doing very, very little.  We need action, we need the right action and we need a short term solution as well as a longer term solution but the short term solution is that these drivers need protecting to do their day to day jobs.  

DM: One quick question, your thoughts on the fines that drivers sometimes get hit with if an illegal migrant is found on one of their vehicles when they are in the UK?

RICHARD BURNETT: I think, currently that is completely unreasonable to expect a driver to be fined when he is facing the threat that they are facing.  £2000 per immigrant for both the haulier and the driver is I think completely unreasonable.  

DM: Great talking to you, thank you very much indeed.  Richard Burnett there from the Road Haulage Association.  g able to take €60 out if they can find it, why do you think the people of Greece on