Companies

Eurotunnel wins asylum seeker ruling

paul@bluesearchltd.co.uk
Eurotunnel, which runs the undersea rail link between Britain and France, has won a historic arbitration decision against both countries’ governments over the security breach that saw thousands of asylum seekers invade the tunnel crossing the English Channel.

The decision, which heralds the company’s first injection of public money, could be worth millions of pounds in damages to the tunnel’s operator, which had claimed £30m (€45m, $59m) in damages from Paris and London.

The ruling, announced in The Hague late on Friday, is also the first significant international arbitration decision to go against a western government. The fact that until now the vast bulk of disputes involving claims against governments has focused on countries outside the western world has fuelled suspicions the arbitration system exists mainly to benefit multinational companies in the developing world.

Eurotunnel brought the proceedings against the French and British governments after suffering months of disruption and additional security expenses in the early-2000s when thousands of asylum seekers, housed at the Sangatte camp near Calais, attempted to smuggle themselves on to trains bound for London or use the tunnel to walk to the UK.

In the wake of the Sangatte debacle, Eurotunnel claimed the governments had been in breach of the duties set out in the concession agreement which governs the tunnel’s operations. Its claim covered a period of more than two years until December 2002, when a political deal eventually resolved the Sangatte crisis.

The legal action led to private arbitration hearings last May at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The governments, however, countered that maintaining the safety of the Channel tunnel was Eurotunnel’s responsibility.

Late last week, the five-judge panel that heard the arbitration case released a public judgment in Eurotunnel’s favour, and said the company was entitled to recover damages from both governments.

“The tribunal concludes that in the circumstances of the clandestine migrant problem, as it existed in the Calais region in the period from September 2000, it was incumbent on the [governments] … to maintain conditions of normal security and public order” in and around the Eurotunnel terminal at Coquelles and “that they failed to take appropriate steps in this regard”.

The judges said: “The claimants [Eurotunnel] are entitled to the losses directly flowing from this breach.”

The arbitrators’ findings, however, dealt with liability only. The size of the damages finally secured by Eurotunnel will depend on further hearings unless a settlement can be agreed. Lawyers say proceedings could take another couple of years to complete.

Separately, a second claim by Eurotunnel against the French government, potentially worth more than £400m, over tax breaks allegedly given to SeaFrance, the cross-Channel ferry operator, failed.