1 dead as 1,500 migrants try to storm French side of Eurotunnel to Britain

For the second night in a row, hundreds of migrants on Tuesday tried to force their way into the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais, France, in a desperate bid to jump a ride on freight trains to Britain. One of the migrants, reported to be a Sudanese man age 25 to 30, died in Tuesday night's attempt, probably hit by a truck leaving a train from Britain. More than 2,100 people tried to rush the Eurotunnel on Monday night, and eight others have died attempting to stow aboard the trains to Britain since June.

Most of the migrants — from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Syria, Sudan, and North Africa — "plan to seek asylum when they arrive in Britain or ask for protection as refugees," explains The New York Times. "They say they are choosing to go there because they have relatives there, speak some English, or believe they are more likely to get housing once they apply for asylum. It is not clear whether that belief is true."

Their attempts are causing delays on passenger service through through the Eurotunnel and even longer ones for commercial trucks. That, rather than the migrant crises, was the focus of British Prime Minister David Cameron's response. "I have every sympathy with holiday-makers who are finding access to Calais difficult because of the disturbances there, and we will do everything we can to work with the French to bring these things to a conclusion," he said from Singapore. Britain and France have pledged millions of dollars to increase fencing and security at the Calais terminal.

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