GETTY Natacha Bouchart says Calais is so lawless only the army can stop the madness

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Natacha Bouchart said the population of the shanty towns which have sprung up around the busy ferry terminal was now standing at about 6,000. Speaking yesterday, Ms Bouchart told listeners that the lawlessness in the camps was “untenable” and that she was in talks with security officials to resolve the situation. “It would be nice if the army comes to monitor the migrants” the hardline mayor said in an interview with French radio station RMC. Calais is struggling under the weight of the migrants who are squatting in and around the town which has been seen as a jumping off point for anyone wishing to reach the UK illegally. Lorries, cars and caravans entering the port are targeted by mobs of immigrants hoping to stowaway across the Channel.

Eurotunnel services also face daily onslaughts from those hoping to get onboard passing passenger and freight trains or simply walk through the tunnel. At least 16 people have died trying to make the perilous journey this summer. Passengers on both sides of the tunnel were delayed yesterday after an overnight invasion at its Coquelles base close to Calais. Services were halted after hundreds of migrants stormed the terminal in the early hours of the morning. Trains resumed running just before lunchtime with massive delays and traffic building up on the M20 motorway in Kent.

GETTY Calais is overrun by migrants trying to reach the UK

Migrants are now using diversionary tactics with mobs deliberately distracting police so others can make it through fences and security and make their bid to cross the Channel, a Eurotunnel spokesman said.

They are coming in waves to occupy the police, then another wave comes, then another, until there is no more police A Eurotunnel spokesman

“They are coming in waves to occupy the police, then another wave comes, then another, until there is no more police. One group is then able to get through. “Then we have to take over and sweep through the terminal and clear them all from the tracks and the platform,” he said. Ms Bouchart blames Britain’s soft-touch benefits system and huge black market economy for turning her town into a migrant magnet. She has demanded breaches of security at the Eurotunnel site be treated as “attacks on national infrastructure” instead of trespass meaning British-bound migrants who break into the Channel Tunnel could face up to 10 years in prison. The surge in attempts to cross the Channel prompted a string of measures to beef up security at the terminal, including extra fencing and increased numbers of border guards and search dog teams.

The booming numbers camped around the French port have been boosted as part of the wider EU migrant crisis caused by a surge into Europe from countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Ukip MEP Mike Hookem said: "The situation in Calais is not improving and having seen the impact of these migrant camps in Calais and heard about the increase in crime from the police there I am not surprised she is calling for more assistance. I would certainly back her requests particularly as the migrant gangs are now coordinating moves to overwhelm the police. "But the French need to understand that when they joined the EU's Schengen Area they gave up control of their borders - so instead of always blaming the British they need to look at the decisions of their own MPs and MEPs." Details of incidents around the EU’s border countries showed the situation continues to spiral out of control. Hundreds of migrants were forced to spend a night in the freezing rain at the Slovenian border yesterday after officials refused to let them enter. Croatian authorities sent a train carrying about 1,800 to the frontier despite being told previously they would not be allowed in. The incident has caused a diplomatic spat between the two countries, with Slovenia claiming Croatia had breached an agreement to send only 2,500 people to the border each day.

GETTY Lawless Calais needs military support the town’s mayor has said

The figure appears to have been reduced to 1,500 a day by Slovenia to match the number neighbouring Austria allow across its border each day. An estimated 10,000 more migrants hoping to reach Germany and Sweden are stranded in Serbia because of restrictions imposed by Croatia and Hungary. The head of the German police union has called for the building of a fence along the country’s border with Austria. Rainer Wendt told the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag “If we want to conduct serious border controls, we must build a fence along the German border. I am in favour of our doing this.” Wendt said that if Germany closed its border with, Austria would do the same to its neighbour Slovenia. “We need precisely this effect,” he added.

GETTY 'The Jungle' has become the hotspot for migrant madness