Britain is paying for the construction of a wall in Calais, near the so-called Jungle migrant camp, in an attempt to stop refugees and migrants from boarding lorries heading for the UK, the country's immigration minister has confirmed.

The 4m (13ft) wall will run for 1km (0.6 miles) along both sides of the port's divided highway. Construction work is expected to start this month and finish by the end of the year.

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Robert Goodwill, Britain's Home Office minister, said the wall was part of a £17 million ($22 million) joint Anglo-French security project to protect lorries from migrants who have hurled rocks and other objects to try to stop vehicles before jumping on board.

"The security that we are putting in at the port is being stepped up with better equipment," Goodwill said. "We are going to start building this big new wall very soon. We've done the fence; now we are doing a wall."

However, Richard Burnett, the chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, criticized the plan saying it was a "poor use of taxpayers' money".

Vikki Woodfine, who works with trucking companies in her job at law firm DWF, said the wall "is simply a knee-jerk reaction that is unlikely to make a difference in the long run.

Migrants "are increasingly desperate to cross the border and will undoubtedly find a way past it, pushing the death toll even higher in the process," Woodfine said.

It is not clear how much the government paid for the wall, but reports suggest the budget is around £1.9m ($2.5m).

Thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, have made long and dangerous journeys to Calais, hoping to reach Britain by stowing away on trucks and trains through the Channel Tunnel.

Authorities have built high barbed-wire fences to keep people away from Eurotunnel freight trains, the port and the highway.

But desperate migrants are using increasingly dangerous tactics to slow trucks and hitch a ride. Aid group Auberge des Migrants says 11 migrants have died this year, seven of them on the highways.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.