Crew of BBC1 religious programme reported to have been filming at church in ‘jungle’ area

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Songs of Praise is to feature a segment from a migrant camp in Calais, amid a crisis in which at least nine people have died since June while attempting to cross from France into England.

An estimated 5,000 migrants displaced from countries including Eritrea, Libya and Syria are camped in and around Calais.

A production crew for Songs of Praise, including host Sally Magnusson, is due to arrive at the site over the weekend of 8-9 August.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “Songs of Praise is a magazine-style programme. Each week it brings hymns from churches around the UK and short topical magazine features of interest to Christians from a range of places.”

The programme will not be broadcast this Sunday, 9 August, but at a later date.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Songs of Praise presenter Aled Jones.

An unprecedented surge in migrants attempting to cross the Channel has prompted a string of measures to increase security at the Eurotunnel terminal, including extra fencing and the deployment of more border force search and dog teams.

The resulting disruption has put police and social services in Kent under strain, while hauliers’ groups claim the economy is losing millions of pounds.

Kent county council has said it has no more foster beds available to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving in the county.

On Tuesday evening a man was found inside the 31-mile long Channel tunnel near its exit at Folkestone.

The suspected illegal immigrant, understood to be Sudanese, is thought to have walked nearly the entire length of the tunnel from Calais.

Kent police said Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, has been charged with causing an obstruction to an engine or carriage using the railway under the Malicious Damage Act 1861.

There have been nightly incursions into the tunnel by migrants.

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A former British ambassador to France has warned there is no “magic solution” to the current migrant crisis, and said the issues should be seen in the context of an overall surge in migration into Europe.

Sir John Holmes, who held the post between 2001 and 2007, said: “Although it’s a very difficult problem and causes a lot of obstacles and complications, it is a relatively small part of a much bigger problem which is the number of people trying to get illegally into Europe from the Middle East and north Africa.”

The Home Office has said it is continuing to work closely with the French government and Eurotunnel “to tackle the immediate pressures and longer-term issues involved in the situation in northern France”.

• This article was updated on 7 August 2015 to reflect a BBC statement that a recorded segment, not the full show, would be filmed in the Calais migrant camp