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Plans are being put in place for a no-go zone to protect British-bound lorries queuing at Calais to enter the Channel Tunnel.

With the migrant crisis at the stricken French port now spiralling out of control, under-pressure Home Secretary Theresa May announced the creation of a special holding area.

This will cost £1.5million and have capacity for 230 vehicles to wait in safety — with security guards and fencing.

But Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, warned the move was “not going to solve the problem” because hundreds more migrants are arriving at Calais every week.

The Labour MP also slammed hapless Immigration Minister James Brokenshire, who had admitted that he has never been to Calais.

“You really need to go down there,” Mr Vaz told the top Tory.

“The migrants do not see a fence and say, ‘Oh, here is a fence’. They try to get into the vehicles before they get into the fenced area. The problem is just moved somewhere else.”

The Commons committee had heard how UK-bound lorry drivers are being threatened with guns, knives and iron bars by gangs.

The no-go zone plans were unveiled as it was revealed that a staggering 28,000 migrants have been caught in the first six months of this year trying to enter Britain from Calais.

Eurotunnel director John Keefe also told the Home Affairs Committee that the amount of migrants sleeping rough around the French port as they try to get to Britain has hit a record 5,000.

The figure is up from 3,000 last month and just 600 in January. Mr Keefe said: “We have never seen numbers like this before.

“It is an absolutely unprecedented situation in international transport.”

Richard Burnett, Road Haulage Association boss, claimed British truckers face “civil war” conditions as they try to pass through Calais.

He said 20-strong gangs of migrants are threatening drivers and breaking into lorries in a desperate bid to enter Britain.

Mr Burnett added: “This is unprecedented and it is escalating. We need action now.

“We’ve got drivers being threatened with bars and knives. We’ve had an example of a driver being threatened with a gun.

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“If this was happening in the UK, we would be policing this – that is simply not happening in France.”

Mr Keefe said many of those arrested were repeat offenders, as French police release them shortly after each arrest.

He added: “The 28,000 is the number of people we take off trucks. It’s regularly the same people coming back again and again and again — sometimes several times in a night.

“It’s the 5,000 population simply rotating around.’’

The crisis has been exacerbated by French ferry workers who caused huge tailbacks in England and France by staging strikes two weeks ago.

Migrants targeted stationary vehicles as they sat in mile-long queues on French roads.