Sir – I read with concern about the initiative by a local group to send aid supplies to The Jungle in Calais.

I do not doubt the sincerity of this group but as a regular visitor to Calais I feel that their actions are completely misguided and will actually do more harm than good.

Whilst some of the population of The Jungle are genuinely fleeing from persecution, many others are simply economic migrants and terrorists, waiting for a chance to come to Britain to enjoy our State Benefits and cash-in-hand work around London. Even the genuine refugees who are in Calais could already have claimed asylum in France or in the first safe country that they came to.

Readers must ask themselves: ‘If I was genuinely fleeing from tyranny, would I risk my life to travel to Britain by jumping on a moving train or truck, or would I seek asylum in a safe country such as France?’ There is no legal way for these people to enter Britain from Calais. Instead, to get to Britain they must breach the Channel Tunnel security, which is a crime. People who commit crimes are criminals. The analogy I offer is that giving supplies of food to these people is like leaving out a table of food in the street to a burglar waiting to break into your house when you are away on holiday.

Furthermore, if these Redditch people do want to assist genuine asylum seekers then the most effective way is to give money, gift aided, to the large aid organisations such as Oxfam, Red Cross and CAFOD who can buy in bulk at vastly reduced prices and efficiently deliver the aid locally to refugee camps closer to the affected countries.

Sending a small van from Redditch with assorted donated supplies is grossly inefficient and simply irritates the French police who have to deal with them, while trying to protect Europe from terrorists.

Only a few weeks ago I was involved in a near miss when one of these so-called asylum seekers jumped out in front of me on the motorway approaching Calais in an effort to jump on a truck which was slowing down. It is only a matter of time before a British lorry driver or tourist, possibly from Redditch, is killed in Calais as a result of the actions of the inhabitants of “The Jungle”.

John Kane

Redditch