Lib Dem leader Tim Farron criticises UK government response to Calais migrant crisis

The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats Tim Farron criticised the British government's response to the continuing migrant crisis in Calais, on a visit to the main migrant camp in the French town on 4 August.

Farron said: ''So talking about the refugees here as if they were less than human is pretty despicable on behalf of the UK government. But the other way which the government is being confrontational is in the way it talks to France and to the other European countries. Surely we should be working together to solve this problem, not throwing bricks at each other."

He urged the British prime minister to visit. ''I would love David Cameron and others to come to places like this and see for themselves the humanity, to see for themselves the children who are here unaccompanied, orphaned, many of them with desperate medical conditions, desperate psychological conditions that they've acquired in the journey to get here, seeing loved ones die on the way. I want us to be able to say that we understand these people before we make decisions that are so final,'' Farron said.

The Lib Dem leader visited the Jules Ferry complex inside the camp, where people can go to shower, charge their mobile phones and queue for a daily food ration. He also met medical staff from Medecins du monde, a charitable organisation which has been providing medical care to migrants inside the camp.

Europe has seen a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa trying to escape poverty and violence at home and the issue has shot to international prominence as thousands try to make their way to Britain from the French port of Calais.