LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron faced heavy criticism Thursday for saying a “swarm” of migrants was trying to come to Britain as authorities in France struggle to stop them crossing the Channel.

“This is very testing, I accept that, because you have got a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain because Britain has got jobs, it’s got a growing economy, it’s an incredible place to live,” Cameron told ITV television during a visit to Vietnam.

Acting leader of the main opposition Labour Party Harriet Harman said Cameron should “remember he is talking about people, not insects.”

The Refugee Council, a leading charity which works with asylum seekers, said it was “awful, dehumanizing language from a world leader.”

And Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which wants strict controls on immigration, said he would not use similar words.

“The prime minister is this morning trying to sound tough. Whether he actually means it or not is quite a separate question,” Farage told BBC radio. Cameron is facing calls from tabloid newspapers to deploy the British Army to resolve the situation but insists the correct way to tackle it is by working alongside the authorities in France.

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants holed up in northern France made another desperate attempt to reach England on Thursday.

France has bolstered its police presence in the northern port city of Calais and migrants made fewer attempts to enter the Eurotunnel than in previous nights.

Police counted several hundred bids to enter the premises of the Eurotunnel terminal in the French port city of Calais, down significantly from the roughly 2,300 attempts registered the night before.

Authorities arrested around 300 of the roughly 800-1,000 migrants estimated to be present at the site overnight.

Eurotunnel did not give precise figures but acknowledged it had been quieter than previous nights.

Traffic through the tunnel, which had been severely disrupted the previous day, was barely affected.

Early Thursday, there were no reported delays on either side of the Channel Tunnel on what is expected to be a busy day in peak European holiday season. Police intercepted the vast majority of the few hundred migrants who did attempt to penetrate the Eurotunnel premises.

An AFP reporter in Calais watched as dozens of migrants charged past outnumbered police.

Some made it over a barbed wire fence and disappeared into the darkness. But most failed and instead held a sit-in, blocking the passage of shuttles in a vain attempt to get the police to let them pass.

The crisis in Calais has spiked in intensity in the past few days, with upwards of 2,000 desperate bids nightly to sneak into the tunnel to get to Britain — seen as an “Eldorado” for migrants.

One man died early Wednesday, apparently crushed by a lorry as he tried to make it into the tunnel.

Another migrant, who had suffered head injuries at the weekend, died earlier in the week, authorities announced on Thursday, bringing to 10 the total number of deaths since June.

A teenage Egyptian boy was also fighting for his life after being electrocuted after jumping onto the roof of a Eurostar train bound for London at Paris’s central Gare du Nord station, a police source said.