Foreign lorry drivers are 'taking £1,200 bungs to give illegal immigrants a lift through the Chunnel' 

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Foreign lorry drivers are reportedly taking £1,200 bungs to give desperate migrants a lift through the Channel Tunnel.

A Bulgarian truck driver is said to be under investigation by the police for accepting a wad of cash from a migrant in return for help across the border.

There are fears that the dodgy deals are widespread among foreign truckers in Calais, where migrants have made 5,000 attempts to make it through the Channel Tunnel in the last week.

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Foreign lorry drivers, such as this Bulgarian driver, are allegedly taking £1,200 bungs to help migrants cross the Channel

This driver is said to be under investigation by the police for accepting a wad of cash from a migrant in return for help across the border

Foreign lorry drivers are reportedly taking £1,200 bungs to give desperate migrants (pictured near Calais this week) a lift through the Channel Tunnel

Pictures published by the Sunday Mirror appear to show a driver accepting cash from three migrants after they jumped out of his vehicle just five minutes after making it into Britain.

The newspaper claims the driver was later arrested but this was strongly denied by Kent Police. 

British lorry driver Martin Burge, 53, said he told officers he saw three men fleeing from the truck at the service station at junction 11 of the M20 in Kent.

Migrant smuggling is said to be relatively common among foreign drivers, partly because they need to make cash on the side of their measly pay.

Mr Burge said: 'European drivers are cashing in on this. I was parked at the services on a break when a truck pulled up and let out a bunch of immigrants.'

The trucker said he immediately called the police who arrested a man not far from the service station. 

A Bulgarian truck driver is said to be under investigation by the police for accepting a wad of cash from a migrant (pictured, migrants seen walking near the Channel Tunnel entrance)

Escaping: There are fears that the dodgy deals are widespread among foreign truckers in Calais, where immigrants have taken to desperate measure to make it to Britain

Migrant smuggling is said to be relatively common among foreign drivers, partly because they need to make cash on the side of their measly pay

Some drivers are choosing to avoid the French port altogether because of 'dangerous' migrants (pictured outside the Eurotunnel)

Crisis: Around 5,000 attempts have been made by migrants to cross the border in the last seven days 

He added: 'The Europeans don't make a lot of money and especially with all of these delays, a lot of money is being lost.

'It's all very organised. [The migrants] approach the truckers in the middle of the night to ask if they will take migrants in the back of their trucks. I've heard they are asking for a minimum of £1,200 per immigrant.'

A spokesman for Kent Police told MailOnline that they arrested one of the migrants but not the driver.

He said: 'We were called at 10.10am on Tuesday 28 July to a report that a suspected migrant had got off a lorry at the Junction 11 services of the M20.

'The man was detained and transferred to Home Office immigration enforcement.' 

Truckers called for more police to be stationed in the lorry parks in Kent and Calais to deal with the 'dodgy drivers'. 

Meanwhile some drivers are choosing to avoid the French port altogether because of 'dangerous' migrants.

Trucker Steve Hanney said five migrants jumped on top his lorry and cut a hole through the roof to get inside. He said when police arrived they found the men were armed with 'huge machetes'.

The disruption to the haulage industry is costing the UK economy £250million a day.

A migrant climbs over a fence on to the tracks near the Eurotunnel site at Coquelles in Calais earlier this week

Stuck: For 27 of the last 40 days, lorries have been forced to queue up from junctions 8 to 11 on the M20 in Kent as part of Operation Stack

Truckers (pictured stuck on the M20) have branded David Cameron's plans to tackle the crisis a 'sticking plaster' that will not solve the chaos in the long-term

For 27 of the last 40 days, lorries have been forced to queue up from junctions 8 to 11 on the M20 in Kent as part of Operation Stack, which has seen the usually busy motorway closed to become a makeshift lorry park. 

Drivers have faced 18-hour queues stretching as long as 36 miles - five miles longer than the Channel Tunnel - in recent days, though the motorway was fully opened last night.

The delays have meant that full lorry-loads of food have had to be destroyed on arrival in Britain because produce has either gone off or has been contaminated by migrants. This could lead to a rise in prices of food in supermarkets because of shortages, haulage bosses warned.

David Cameron announced a five-point plan to tackle the intensifying crisis in Calais, which includes bolstered security, more sniffer dogs and extra fencing.

But truckers branded this a 'sticking plaster' that will not solve the chaos in the long-term.

Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said: ‘The measures aren’t enough, they are just sticking plasters in terms of trying to resolve this problem.

‘Until we actually contain the situation in Calais with the migrants, this situation is a crisis and it’s out of control.’

More than 5,000 attempts have been made by migrants to cross the Channel in the last week, with more than a thousand a day earlier this week.

The situation appeared to have quietened down on Friday night, when 300 were able to make it into a secure area at the Channel Tunnel.

It is not known how many migrants have succeeded in making it to Britain so far, but the Mail on Sunday revealed that those who have are being put up in hotels at the taxpayers' expense.

Stowaways who have illegally entered the country on lorries or trains through the Channel Tunnel are being transported across England and given their own hotel room, three cooked meals a day and a cash allowance of £35 a week.

They are being accommodated in hotels boasting pools, gyms and spas even before claiming asylum, because official reception centres cannot cope with the recent surge in illegal arrivals.