DESCRIBED as a “swarm” by Prime Minister David Cameron, the migrants congregating at a camp in the French town of Calais have split the opinion of the nation.

While some think they should be welcomed into the United Kingdom, others favour the extreme measure of bricking up the Channel Tunnel to keep them out.

Rather than making a snap judgement on the issue, three Southend residents visited the migrant camp to see at first hand the situation faced by the thousands of refugees congregating the other side of the English Channel.

Matt Dominey, 17, of Cranleigh Road, Westcliff, joined 20-yearold university student Grace Claydon and 45-year-old mission agency worker Juliet Kilpin in visiting the camp last week.

The Southend High School for Boys student was angered by the Prime Minister’s comments when he told ITV News of a “swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain”.

He felt Mr Cameron’s comments dehumanised the people fighting to survive in the makeshift camp.

Mrs Kilpin, a member of Avenue Baptist Church and mission agency co-ordinator for Urban Expression, organised the trip across the channel, taking clothes, food and money to donate to the charities helping the migrants.

Upon arrival the trio helped in handing out food parcels to those in need, before walking through the camp to speak to the migrants. Matt said: “I spoke to one man called Eyob, he was 36 and had travelled from Ethiopia to get to Calais, either by walking or by bus.

“He had not spoken to his family for four months.

“I asked if he would like to bring his family with him, but he said no.

“He had left in search of a better life and to provide to his family, but after what he’s gone through, and now being in the camp, he said he didn’t want to put his family through that.

“He had studied English and biology in Ethiopia and wanted to study biology in England.”

The camp – now known as the Jungle – was set up in January after the previous Sangatte camp was demolished following riots in 2002.

The camp is based around a former children’s holiday camp and has steadily grown.

It has a day centre providing shower facilities and offers residents one meal a day, but relief workers are being overwhelmed by the numbers of people arriving, mainly from east Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The number of people in the camp is now about 4,000. Razor wire fences are being erected along the sides of motorways in Calais, to prevent migrants trying to hitch a ride across the Channel.

But this is just the tip of a very large iceberg, with more than 185,000 people having crossed the Mediterranean into southern Europe since the start of the year.

Matt added: “I asked Eyob quite bluntly about the British benefits system.

“He was clueless. He had no idea about the benefits system.

He wanted to come to England because he wanted to learn and to work.

“When addressing the issue of poverty, both in Britain and on a global scale, I feel that as a developed country we have a responsibility to help people.

“We need to help the migrants in Calais and send aid to the countries they are coming from.

“If you treat the cause rather than the symptoms then maybe in the long termwe won’t have so many people fleeing their countries in the first place.

“Germany has taken in 800,000 migrants since the start of the year and we have taken a fraction of that.

“There is also research that suggests in the last ten years, migrants have contributed £8billion more to the economy than they have taken out.

“Yes we need to address the issues in our own country, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore everyone else.”

Matt has set up a petition to Government for the UK to take in its “fair share” of migrants, at tinyurl.com/q532bx2