A proposed new migrant camp in Dunkirk, just 30 miles from Calais, has been criticised by the RHA and the FTA.
The French government is to commit a proposed £1.1m to the camp, which is located about five miles east of the port of Dunkirk.
The RHA said the dangers faced by UK hauliers crossing the channel will double if the new camp goes ahead.
RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said his greatest concern was that “the number of staff will be reduced and redeployed at Dunkirk”, given that the migrants at Calais “already outnumber security officials by 18:1”.
“The inevitable outcome of this will be that what is already a bad situation will get much, much worse,” he added.
However Natalie Chapman, the FTA’s head of policy for London and the South East, said that a new camp was needed, just not next to another port.
Chapman told Motortransport.co.uk: “On a humanitarian level there probably does need to be a new camp. The Jungle camp in Calais is squalid and we must be able to do better for people in the 21st Century. But not in Dunkirk.
“It's a bad idea and completely the wrong location. It needs to be 100 miles in the other direction, inland, and as far away as possible from any port or key freight route to the UK.”
The FTA has also called for the “Jungle” camp in Calais to be moved further away from the port.
A spokeswoman for the association said: “Drivers have no choice but to slow down and at such close proximity, they’re just sitting ducks. At a moments notice the migrants can swarm the trucks and be on them in seconds.”
A Twitter poll conducted by the FTA last month revealed that 96% of its followers, who are predominantly drivers and member hauliers according to the association, want to see the camp moved.
The RHA said it will continue to call for the French military to be deployed.
"This is now a critical situation which cannot be allowed to continue", said Burnett. "The lives and livelihoods for hauliers and for thousands of Calaisians are now being put at severe risk. Pressure must be brought to bear on the French government to act."
