Britain, France and Italy need to do more to solve the asylum seeker crisis, according to Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless after his visit to see transit camps of migrants in Calais at first hand.

Around 1,300 migrants are camping at the French port in an effort to reach the UK, and the crisis escalated at the start of the month when a large group overpowered security staff and charged a P&O vessel.

The attempt ended with the group being marched away by armed police but is just the latest incident in an ongoing crisis which has seen the Mayor of Calais threaten to blockade the port.

Mr Reckless visited the town on Thursday, meeting with French officials and speaking to asylum seekers, and said the visit had a “personal impact on him”.

“I was shocked at the number of groups of men wandering around,” he said. “I went to see parts of the ‘Jungle’ – an area of scrubland where hundreds of immigrants are camping out in the most basic conditions.

“I spoke to one gentleman called Peter from Ethiopia. He’d travelled through Sudan and Libya, then got a boat from Lampedusa, the Italian island.

"The Italians moved him to Bologna and left him on the street, so he got the train to Calais.”

It was the Italians, he said, that needed to take more responsibility for thousands of people similar to Peter.

“Rather than blame Britain for people wanting to come here the French need to blame the Italians for waving people through. I’ve got nothing but sympathy for the people of Calais but the solution has got to be better enforcement in southern Europe.”

Aside from putting political pressure on the Italians, he said Britain should take positive steps to help the situation by offering security advice and better fencing to the French.

He said Home Secretary Theresa May was right to say Britain needed to become a “hostile environment” for illegal migrants.

“I have no problem with that. I think if people are here illegally then the environment should be hostile.”