France rejects English plans to 'recreate' Sangatte camp

FRANCE'S immigration minister today launched a scathing attack on Britain for suggesting a new detention centre for illegal migrants in Calais.

Eric Besson said the centre proposed by the minister of state for borders and immigration, Phil Woolas, would turn into a "new Sangatte", referring to the former Red Cross centre which acted as a magnet to thousands trying to make their way to the UK.

Mr Woolas said yesterday that plans for a new Anglo-French camp were well under way.

But on French television today Mr Besson said: "There is no question of re-creating Sangatte. It would be a dramatic error for everyone concerned, including the British.

"It would be a mistake as far as regulating the flow of migrants to the United Kingdom is concerned."

Sangatte was bulldozed as part of an agreement between Britain and France in 2002, with the authorities on both sides of the Channel pledging there would be no repeat.

The then-interior minister who signed the order to destroy Sangatte was Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president.

Mr Woolas faced further embarrassment when the Home Office was unable to provide details of how the proposed detention centre would work.

Mr Besson has been trying to present a more liberal approach to immigrants in Calais. Last week he pledged to build a number of "mini-Sangattes" - but rather than prisons they would be welcome centres offering food, showers, and legal advice.

A local government source in Calais further denounced Mr Woolas's proposals and said it would be "ridiculous and indeed illegal to start imprisoning would-be immigrants to the United Kingdom".

He added: "Quite the opposite - welcome centres are the order of the day at the moment."

Illegal immigrants found around the Calais area are now detained either in a centre at Coquelles - near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel - or in one of the two centres in Lesquin, near the Belgian border.