CAMPAIGNERS demanded a “fundamental rethink” of immigration policy yesterday, following the discovery of a dead teenage boy on the roof of a Eurostar train from Calais to Folkestone.

The young man, thought to have been trying to reach Britain from the French port, was found by police at 4.13am on Thursday on the loading bay of the vehicle shuttle service.

It is believed he died in France and his body was then carried through the tunnel before being spotted.

A Kent Police spokesman said officers were “called at 4.13am to a report that the body of a male had been discovered on the loading bay of a Eurotunnel train at the Channel tunnel terminal in Folkestone.

“Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances behind his death.”

The teenager’s death is just the latest in a string of fatal incidents involving desperate immigrants recently.

Just weeks ago, the body of a man was found in west London after he had apparently fallen from a passenger plane, having stowed away on the jet in a desperate bid to enter the country.

Further afield, thousands of people, including women and children, have drowned in the Mediterranean in recent months while trying to reach Europe, having fled conflict and persecution in their own lands.

Reacting to the latest tragedy, Migrants’ Rights Network director Don Flynn said: “The death of yet another migrant — this time apparently a teenager — is a reminder of just how far away the UK and Europe is from a morally defensible immigration policy.

“The denial of a legal route allowing people the opportunity to find a safe haven in countries where they could work and contribute to society is forcing so many to take the sort of risks that led to the death of this young man.

“The time is overdue for a fundamental rethink on how we should be managing immigration and acknowledging the rights of people on the move across borders.”

Yet the tragedy did nothing to soften the anti-immigrant bile of the right-wing press, with one paper branding people risking their lives in the tunnel “train squatters.”

Weyman Bennett of Unite Against Fascism told the Star: “The dehumanisation of asylum-seekers and migrants is a shame on Western policy, which professes to offer refuge to those in need.”