World War II survivors are making the news again. This time, it’s Britain’s victory over France during the final weeks of the struggle to liberate the country in 1945. As the world has known for generations, there are 463,000 veterans alive in Britain today and the British government will be honoring the Battle of Britain veterans with celebrations in Brighton and elsewhere over the upcoming weekend.
The London Times report illustrates a particularly tense situation in Calais, a northern French town where migrants hoping to make their way to Britain are camped and hoping to outsmart the guards responsible for keeping them out of Calais’s Channel ports. The patrols sometimes set up a hard line on the migrants, arresting and escorting away ones who have already made it to the country’s coasts, leaving many to fear for their lives. But when Britain’s government patrols show up, the migrants bristle, and snarl up the local law enforcement.
The Times write that British officials have long sought to attract Calais’s international transit movement—Italian, German, even American—to resettle in Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron even extended the concession in an election debate when he announced a plan to make it easier for entrepreneurs to obtain work visas. But Britain’s government is now facing an increased number of migrants continuing to arrive at Calais, forcing them to react to the game of cat and mouse, which perhaps will inflame relations between Britain and France over an increasingly divergent immigration policy.