The barrier runs alongside the Calais ring road, with the aim of preventing migrants from clandestinely boarding lorries bound for the United Kingdom.
Construction of the "anti-intrusion" wall in Calais, in northern France, is complete. The announcement was made by the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais: the structure, 4 metres high and one kilometre long, extends the barriers that had already been installed near the port, and runs alongside the entire "rocade" (ring road) of the French city. The barrier – financed by the United Kingdom with an allocation of 2.7 million euros – was conceived by the authorities in Paris and London to prevent migrants in the area from clandestinely boarding the many lorries queuing to cross the Channel.
Work to build the barrier had begun on 20 September, when the refugee camp known as the "Calais Jungle" was still home to thousands of migrants, prior to its demolition ordered at the end of October. According to the chief executive of the port of Boulogne-Calais, it is an "extremely important" piece of infrastructure that "makes the motorway safe".
During November, the municipality of Calais had asked the administrative court of Lille to annul the decrees authorising construction of the structure: "We believe the wall is now completely pointless, given that the 'Jungle' has been dismantled," Paul-Guillaume Balay, the lawyer who handled the municipality's appeal, had explained. The same lawyer had described the barrier as one that "is reminiscent of the spirit of the Berlin Wall".
On the contrary, prefect Sylvain Gathoye defended the barrier, explaining that "the dismantling of the refugee camp does not alter the geographical situation of the city in relation to England," the migrants' preferred destination. On 22 November, the judges ruled in favour of those who had promoted the initiative.
"The court sided with the government," the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, had commented. "All I can do is note that mayors no longer have any decision-making power over their own municipalities, even on choices that are made without the agreement of local representatives." The mayor had stressed that the wall "disfigures our entire coastline" and reiterated that it "no longer has any reason to exist".