THE Archbishop of York has called on other European countries to do more to tackle the crisis which has resulted in the Calais refugee camp known as the ‘Jungle’.

In comments made at the Henley Literary Festival and reported by national media, Dr John Sentamu accused European countries of “shunting” migrants towards Britain.

Dr Sentamu said the refugee camp in Calais existed only because Europe’s Schengen free-travel zone allowed migrants to move from the Middle East or Africa through Europe to the edge of the Channel without passport checks.

Dr Sentamu said he made the comments at an event open to the public, rather than deliberately to the media.

He said: “I think it should be that, wherever the asylum seekers arrive in that particular place, you have a responsibility for their care, their love.

“Schengen countries have not done that with the Jungle and I, for one - as much as I am sympathetic and I feel sorry for the number of people genuinely seeking asylum - I think really the issue lies with the Schengen countries and they cannot see Britain as a soft touch.”

Clarifying what he had said, Dr Sentamu said he had passed the refugee camp at Calais while on a trip with a group of young people.

He told them: “The responsibility for handling that ‘jungle’ lies with the Schengen countries to resolve and they must not use the ‘jungle’ as a way of passing on migrants that have entered Schengen countries to get to the United Kingdom.

"The United Kingdom is not a signatory to the Schengen Agreement and therefore the responsibility of handling the ‘jungle’ is theirs and theirs alone.”

Dr Sentamu said he added: “Many people have expressed to me the worry about the violence by some of the people in the ‘jungle’ who seemed to have been paid to ensure that some of their number get on buses or trucks and use brutal violence on them and the drivers to achieve this and the concern has been whether one in ten of those violent people are members of IS.”