- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Migrant Deaths on Train Tracks Leaving Drivers Too Traumatized to Work

© AP Photo / Emilio MorenattiA migrant runs after crossing a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais, northern France, Monday, Aug. 3, 2015.
A migrant runs after crossing a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais, northern France, Monday, Aug. 3, 2015. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Summer strikes by workers at the port of Calais in France led to a surge in migrants making a dash for the Channel Tunnel in an attempt to reach the UK, often with deadly consequences. And now French Channel Tunnel drivers are threatening to strike because they are too traumatized by the deaths of migrants on their train tracks.

Thirteen migrants and refugees have died since June 26 in the Eurotunnel zone and their deaths are leaving a legacy on France.

© AP Photo / Emilio MorenattiA migrant crawls under a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015
A migrant crawls under a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015 - Sputnik International
A migrant crawls under a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015

The country’s biggest worker’s union, CGT has written an emotional open letter to Eurotunnel, seen by AFP on behalf of train drivers.

"Today we are afraid. Afraid to start, afraid to finish, afraid to drive, afraid to hit, crush, to electrocute, to reduce to a pulp a wretched, disinherited, ill-fated, damned of the earth."

"Our hearts are no longer in the job. We do not want to, and above all cannot, continue to do our job in such conditions of stress, anxiety and stomach-clenching fear."

In a plea to their bosses, the drivers ask how much longer they must be "haunted during our working hours, our rest, by these surreal images".

A teenage boy was recently killed by a freight train near the Channel Tunnel entrance in Calais as he tried to cross the tracks. Another man was found dead on the roof of a train after being electrocuted, they are just two of the 13 to die since June.

The refugees, migrants and asylum seekers stuck in Europe don’t have a voice, a name, they are just numbers reported in the media, causing a crisis in Europe on an unprecedented scale.

But they are not just numbers, they have lives and their deaths are leaving a traumatic legacy on people living and working in Europe.

Eurotunnel say around 150 attempts are made by migrants to enter the tunnel every night. A spokesman for the company said he "understands the emotion described", in response to the letter. 

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала