Kent social services are struggling to cope with a surge in the number of children claiming asylum in the wake of the Calais crisis, a council chief has warned.
Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, met officials from the Home Office to highlight the impact of hundreds of minors arriving unaccompanied at the port of Dover.
The number of young migrants in the local authority's care has almost doubled to 605 in the last three months, leaving it with a multi-million pound funding gap.
KCC leader councillor Paul Carter.
Mr Carter said the "massive logistical exercise" of supporting those aged under 18 who make it to the UK is putting an "enormous strain" on children's social services.
"We've got two issues," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.
"One is having to contend with Operation Stack and the main arterial route the M20 being closed in both directions.
"But also, local government has statutory duties to provide care for unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 and those numbers have escalated dramatically in the last four to five weeks.
"That is connected with more migrants getting onto trains and in some cases boats and presenting at Folkestone or Dover seeking asylum. If they are under 18 we have to care and provide for them.
"About a year ago it was running at about 238 unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 that we were supporting. That is now well over 600 and rising day by day, week by week."
Operation Stack in Ashford, Kent. (c.) PA Wire.
He said the council faces a shortfall of £5.5 million in care costs.
"We get a Government grant, but it is never quite enough to meet the total cost of supporting those young people," he told the BBC. "Now the numbers have escalated to these very significant levels, we are really struggling to be able to support these vulnerable young people and have asked the Home Office and the Department for Eduction for additional support, with the potential to have a national dispersal system or a voluntary dispersal system with other authorities around the country, because our social services, frontline social workers, are working flat-out supporting this increase in number."
On Wednesday there was a fresh wave of attempted incursions at the terminal as hundreds of migrants gathered for a third consecutive night.
Nine people have been killed attempting to cross the Channel in the last month, according to Eurotunnel.
The latest breaches prompted calls for the army to be sent in to tackle the crisis.
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