The Port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel are under siege as thousands of migrants risk life and limb in a desperate bid to reach Britain.
Many of those camped out in lay-bys or holed up in storm drains awaiting a glimmer of a chance to cross the Channel have been forced to escape unimaginable horror in their homelands. For the majority, the sole motivation is a better life for them and their families away from violence, terror and constant hunger.
I can understand that, and if I was unfortunate enough to find myself in a similarly desperate position I am sure I would be amongst the Calais hordes knocking at the door.
But their plight has become clouded by a wider economic impasse.
An increasingly bitter industrial dispute involving striking French ferry workers has compounded the issue and led to extraordinary scenes on the English side of the water.
Police in Kent have been forced to institute Operation Stack an emergency protocol that essentially turns the M20 motorway into a lorry park.
It is a measure designed for temporary blips at the border post and is quite obviously not a solution for sustained problems like those of recent weeks.
For days actually weeks on end, there has been little or no trade through this vital portal between the UK and the Continent.
In that time, tens of millions of pounds worth of fresh produce, including tonnes of seafood from Scottish ports and vegetables from Scottish farms, has spoiled as companies have been unable to make deliveries.
Firms which regularly export or import goods are not so wet behind the ears that they expect everything to go swimmingly on each and every journey.
But the Calais crisis means they are suffering sustained, heavy losses and are losing key customers into the bargain. Otherwise sound businesses have gone and will continue to go to the wall unless and until a real and lasting fix is put in place.
David Cameron, fresh from a trade mission to the Far East, convened his emergency Cobra committee to devise practical solutions to the unfolding migrant crisis at Calais.
But I fear his plan to provide a wodge of cash to beef-up security on the French side of the Channel there will be increased security fencing, more dog sniffer patrols and a new secure zone for UK-bound lorries is little more than a sticking plaster on what has developed into an open wound.
In a letter to her Westminster counterpart, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged priority transit through the crossing for fresh produce.
She highlighted that Scotland’s seafood exports alone were worth £600m annually, and the trade north of the border was proportionately larger than in the rest of the UK.
But a summit held with Scottish logistics firms on Monday showed the short-term solution, at least, may, literally, be found in identifying new routes to market.
The Rosyth-to-Zeebrugge freight ferry service is just one link that could receive an interim boost.
But whatever alternative measures are put in place, the simple fact is the Calais crisis in all its forms must be tackled head on.
The most difficult issue is that of what to do with the migrant peoples.
Far greater brains than I have pondered this issue unsuccessfully, and I’m afraid I can offer no solution other than stating that a humanitarian crisis deserves a humanitarian response.
As for the resurrection of trade, that depends on robust cross-Channel co-operation between the UK and France.
I hope Mr Hollande and Mr Cameron are listening and real action to reopen trade links follows very soon.