A picture shows a banner reading "Calais outraged, Calais broken, Calais martyred" in a vehicle during a slow-down operation lead by truck drivers on the A16 highway | Philippe Huguen/AFP via Getty Angry French truckers strike over migrant threat Sometimes violent migrants at ‘The Jungle’ disrupt one of Europe’s biggest trade routes.

CALAIS, France — Freight drivers blockaded the main road leading to the port of Calais on Monday, demanding that French authorities shut down a nearby migrant camp known as the Jungle.

Truckers want to force the government to more quickly address what they say are increasingly violent roadside attacks and rising human and economic costs associated with stowaways trying to get to the U.K.

The disruption of freight traffic at Calais threatens the £100-billion-per-year flow of trade between the Continent and the U.K., which trucking companies say has already been affected by the problems around the migrant camp. The blockade also creates a political headache for London and Paris as they grapple with border control and migration issues in the uncertain relationship between the EU and Britain after the Brexit vote.

“We get tire irons swung at us, branches; people get bricks through their window,” said Steve Hughes, leaning out of the window of his cab as he waited Friday to take his cargo of Belgian chips through the 14 steps of security checks at the port.

The transport industry is upset by the chaos the Jungle has caused. The camp houses about 10,000 people fleeing the Middle East, Africa and Asia, many of whom want to hitch an illegal ride on one of the 1.85 million freight vehicles that pass through Calais every year on the way to Britain. The area is one of the prime entry points for cargo traveling to and from the U.K.

Paris has pledged to close the Jungle in phases and post more police to Calais. That won't happen fast enough to forestall Operation Snail, as Monday's protest is known, said David Sagnard, a Calais-based truck boss and president of the local transport association.

“They don’t understand what transporters are facing. They are turning a blind eye to everything. All the attacks … they are just ignoring it,” Sagnard said.

“Bernard Cazeneuve heard that business is suffering but nothing changes," he said after a meeting with the French interior minister.

Sagnard wants the Jungle gone, better security for drivers on the road, tougher action from local prosecutors on migrants who attack drivers and an end to the £2,000 fine per person for drivers found to have stowaways on board even after submitting to the multiple checks at Calais port.

“What is really crucial is how quickly this happens. In the meantime, we still need security for drivers and operators,” said Stuart Colley, who has been out at Calais port for the International Road Transport Union association.

The cost of Calais

The migrants trying to get into the U.K. have made for a compelling human interest story, but their presence has battered the European transport industry.

Under the 2003 Anglo-French Le Touquet agreement, the U.K. Border Force carries out immigration checks on French soil, and pays for the X-ray scans of truck trailers, heartbeat tests, and CO2 detectors that probe a resting vehicle for signs of life. French authorities do the same in Dover.

The Freight Transport Association estimates that disruptions caused in part by migrants in Calais cost the U.K. industry £750,000 a day last year.

U.K. authorities also pay private companies to use sniffer dogs as another way of rooting out stowaways inside the port, officials said. Migrants seeking passage to the U.K. are found daily, sometimes by the hundreds.

But these checks have lengthened waiting times for crossings — costing haulers around €50 per truck per hour, the IRU estimates.

The Freight Transport Association, the lobby group for British truckers, estimates that disruptions caused in part by migrants in Calais cost the U.K. industry £750,000 a day last year.

“Our job is to organize transport and to ease the fluidity of loadings between road transport and maritime transport ... not to control the border,” said Anthony Pétillon, who works on strategy and development at the Calais port authority.

The situation at the port has some French officials calling for border controls to be shifted back to the U.K., which could create new problems.

“Sending the U.K. border controls back to Kent would create chaos for cross-Channel freight traffic,” said James Hookham, deputy head of the FTA.

Despite efforts by French and British authorities to bring order to the port, a CCTV control room in the port buildings shows the situation isn’t under control. A live feed displayed migrants running at the fence. Up to 30 faced off against police through a cloud of teargas.

Pétillon said the port has to spend €80,000 a week to repair and maintain the fence.

Night terrors

Late at night, the darkness of the unlit roads heading toward Calais is punctuated by flashing blue police lights. Night is where the real danger lies for drivers converging on both the port and the Eurotunnel further down the A16.

“Night is the worst time, but if you've got to pick up a load at say 11 p.m., it's got to be delivered. You don't have a choice,” said Hughes, the truck driver.

The problems at Calais have a knock-on effect deeper into Europe.

Port officials said attacks on drivers and attempts to board trailers heading in to Calais tend to peak at 4 a.m.

“In the last couple of months it's got very bad,” said Steve McCeve, waiting as his truck was being monitored for the faint vibration of a hidden heartbeat. “Attacks, stuff getting thrown at you, threatening you with hammers, knives, everything they have,” he said. “We try and avoid here at night if possible.”

One driver who gave only his first name, Bjoern, said he had been dragged from his cabin around 3 a.m. and kicked after calling the police when a barricade was thrown in front of his truck near the Eurotunnel approach.

“They are getting really violent. Next time I won’t brake,” he said.

The problems at Calais have a knock-on effect deeper into Europe.

“I was in Brussels last week and I woke up at three in the morning and there were immigrants going round the back of the trailer,” McCeve said.

Some operators now tell their drivers not to stop anywhere from Antwerp down to Calais, while others are nervous about sending their drivers to the coast at all. Rest stops along the way have been boarded up, drivers say.

Some shippers say they have looked at other ports to get their goods across the Channel, but sheer capacity at Calais forces them back. Alternative ports at the Hook of Holland and Dunkerque are booked out weeks in advance, said one driver taking sports cars from the Netherlands to the U.K.

For Sagnard, the problems do not stop at driver safety and delays. Profits for his 60-truck business are also in peril.

Showing pictures of trailers in disarray, he said insurers only cover the portion of goods damaged by stowaways, even though buyers often refuse the whole affected cargo. Sagnard estimated those kinds of issues cost his company €250,000 last year.