‘It was inevitable this was going to happen’







"Welcome to Dover in White Cliffs Country," proclaims the sign which greets visitors to the Kent port town.



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For many years, Dover and its famous White Cliffs, immortalised by Forces' sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn in her wartime song, has been the first sight for thousands of migrants who have made perilous journeys on dinghies across the English Channel.



The deaths of 27 people, including women and children, near Calais on Wednesday, has brought into sharp focus the dangerous lengths migrants are prepared to go to reach the Kent coast.



And in Dover, residents voiced sadness over the drownings, along with frustration that it seemed to be a tragedy waiting to happen.



On Biggin Street, in the shadow of Dover Castle, not far from where many migrants have landed, retired caretaker Phillip Jones, 67, sympathised with those fleeing war-torn countries in an effort to forge a better life in Britain.



He said: "These people who are trying to come over here, they are still human beings. And we are not animals trying to stop them from coming over. We in Dover are just a gateway, to what they think will be a better life.



"I do feel sorry for them. They have got to be absolutely desperate to try to come over here in freezing conditions, across the Channel in flimsy boats. Imagine what they are leaving behind."



Mr Jones also believes France should take sterner action to clamp down on people smugglers.



"I don't have an answer to stop this happening again. But I do feel the French should take more responsibility from stopping the crossings at their end."



Georgia Gambrill, 18, expressed a sense of inevitability that a tragedy like this would end up happening, given the record numbers that have risked their lives to reach the UK recently.