Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel yesterday stated it wants the French and British governments to reimburse it for close to €10 million it spent to beef up security to cope with a migrant crisis at the French port of Calais.

Around 5,000 migrants, dislocated by war in their country, political turmoil and poverty, are living in makeshift camps in and around Calais, making daily attempts to board lorries and trains heading to Britain where they hope to find work or claim asylum.

At least four people have died in and around the tunnel since the end of June.

As it unveiled a nine per cent rise in first-half core profit to €252 million yesterday, Eurotunnel said yesterday it spent €13 million on security in the period, the same as for the whole of last year.

An aerial view shows a field named “new jungle” with tents and makeshift shelters where migrants and asylum seekers stay in Calais, France before making daily attempts to board lorries and trains heading towards Britain through the Channel Tunnel.

Eurotunnel services have recently seen disruptions due to migrants attempting to reach Britain, and Chief Executive Jacques Gounon said that French authorities were not doing enough.

“Public authorities underestimate the migrant situation.

“There are not enough police on the ground. Our job is to be a transport company, not to do a police job,” he told a news conference.

Eurotunnel said it had made a request to the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission, the Franco-British regulator of economic and safety issues related to the tunnel, for €9.7 million to be reimbursed in relation to problems caused by moving migrants.

That would be in addition to €4.7 million, which Eurotunnel said the British government had agreed to pay to create a ‘secure zone’ at Calais to protect lorries heading for England from migrants trying to enter the country illegally.

Public authorities underestimate the migrant situation – there are not enough police on the ground

“The increase in pressure from migrants in Calais led to disruption to services during June and could lead to further disruptions to traffic and to additional security expenditure in the second half of the year,” Eurotunnel said in a statement issued yesterday.

The French transport and interior ministries had no immediate comment yesterday while British authorities could not be immediately reached for any comments either.

British police last week raised their estimate of the number of migrants in Calais to 5,000 from 3,000, a number Gounon said was more realistic than the 2,000 estimate from French authorities.

Meanwhile migrants are expecting to find illicit employment in Britain’s shadow economy or claim asylum in the British system which is often seen as more generous than the French equivalent.

Eurotunnel’s security issues have been exacerbated by a French ferry workers’ strike, which has blocked traffic around Calais.

Employees of the Eurotunnel-owned MyFerryLink service – whose ferries the company plans to sell – temporarily blocked French road access to the undersea rail tunnel last Tuesday but this was only a futile attempt when compared to the migrants floods which hits the area.