British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has insisted the UK government has a grip on the migrant crisis at Calais, as he promised 100 security guards will be sent to the trouble spot.

Mr Hammond was speaking after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee, which was called to discuss the situation in the French city.

It comes amid reports in France of another 1,700 attempts to reach the Channel Tunnel last night. On Saturday night, some 2,500 people stormed the barriers.

A Sudanese man died last month when he was crushed by a truck and concerns have been raised about the safety of British hauliers driving goods through the tunnel.

Mr Hammond said: "I think we have got a grip on the crisis. We saw a peak last week, since when the number of illegal migrants has tailed off.

"We have taken a number of measures in collaboration with the French authorities and Eurotunnel, which are already having an effect and over the next day or two I would expect to have an even greater effect.

Some of those measures - such as extra sniffer dogs and fencing to secure the terminal buildings and platforms - were announced last week.

But Mr Hammond has also said that 100 additional guards would be at the terminal in Coquelles, while UK Border Force officials will join their French counterparts working inside the Eurotunnel control room starting tonight.

Under new measures designed to put off would-be asylum seekers from coming to the UK, the British government earlier announced that landlords who fail to evict migrants who do not have the right to live in Britain could be jailed for five years.

Private landlords will also be able to evict illegal immigrants without a court order, in a move the government says will make it easier for property owners to remove migrants whose visas expire.

A new criminal offence of repeatedly failing to conduct checks or remove tenants with no right to reside in Britain will carry maximum penalties of five years' imprisonment.

Rogue landlords or letting agents who break the law will be blacklisted to allow councils to keep track of them - and potentially ban them from renting properties.

The government argues that the measures, which will apply only in England, will make it harder for illegal migrants to remain in the country.

Research by the French authorities, which has been passed to the UK's Home Affairs Select Committee, estimates seven in ten people "processed" in Calais leave within a four-month period.

It potentially indicates that as many as around 3,500 of the estimated 5,000 migrants in Calais could be making it across the Channel.

Kent Police chief constable Alan Pughsley said: "They cannot ascertain whether these migrants leave to go elsewhere in France, or whether they enter the UK.

"Either way, their figures identify a transient migrant population."

It has also been reported that Kent County Council is paying some taxi drivers £150 (around €213) to drive some teenage migrants who have arrived in Dover to homes in London because the county has run out of foster homes.

New measures

The Communities Secretary in Britain, Greg Clark, said the new measures will "crack down on rogue landlords who make money out of illegal immigration".

"In future, landlords will be required to ensure that the people they rent their properties to are legally entitled to be in the country," he said.

"We will also require them to meet their basic responsibilities as landlords, cracking down on those who rent out dangerous, dirty and overcrowded properties."

On Sunday the Home Office confirmed it would strip benefits from failed asylum seekers. At present they are entitled to be housed and claim £36.95 (around €52) a week.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire said it was an attempt to show the UK was not a "land of milk and honey".

However, there have been concerns that desperate people who have fled homes in war-torn countries could be difficult for landlords to evict and fears over where the dispossessed illegal immigrants will go.

The UK government has also pledged to pay for 200 extra private security guards, additional fences and more CCTV in Calais to boost security.

Mr Cameron has also promised to send extra sniffer dogs to Calais, and use military land in England's South East to ease traffic congestion in Kent.

France is also sending police reinforcements as part of new measures agreed with Britain.

Questions have been raised about Britain's response to the crisis, with some arguing the UK's labour laws are to blame for the growing number of migrants trying to cross the Channel.

Former French employment minister Xavier Bertrand, who is running for mayor in the Calais region, said: "They (migrants) don't want to stay in Calais.

"They want to go to England to find a job because they know it is possible to work without an identity card.

"In England, you have to change your policy."

The UK had only the seventh highest number of asylum applications in Europe in April this year, the latest figures show. While 1,960 people applied for asylum in the UK, 5,650 applied for asylum in France.

Home Secretary Theresa May and France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve have called on the EU to step in to help Britain and France find a long-term solution to the "global migration crisis".