Eurotunnel loses refugee camp case

The Channel tunnel is increasingly being used by would-be immigrants

LILLE, France -- A French court has rejected a call to temporarily shut down a refugee centre near the French end of the Channel tunnel.

The tunnel operating company, Eurotunnel, says the Sangatte refugee camp is feeding the flow of asylum seekers trying to enter the UK illegally.

But the Lille court ruled on Tuesday that the matter was not urgent enough for immediate action and turned down the call to temporarily close the base while a decision on its future was made.

Eurotunnel's legal action to close Sangatte permanently will continue. The company says the number of asylum seekers using the tunnel to sneak into the UK has reached "intolerable" levels.

Sangatte -- a Red Cross-run facility -- is home to about 1,600 Kurdish, Iranian and Afghan immigrants.

The camp, just over a mile from the Coquelles tunnel terminal on the French side, is the scene of increasingly bold nightly attempts by many of its inmates to thwart overstretched security and cross into Britain.

Many put their own lives in danger as they attempt to hold on to trains or walk the journey under the English Channel.

The company says more than 18,500 immigrants have sneaked into the UK in the first half of this year alone, despite its policing efforts.

It faces a fine for each asylum-seeker that illegally gets through.

French authorities, under attack from the UK for placing so many refugees in an open camp near the tunnel, will argue that to close it will put the homeless on the streets increasing their determination to get to Britain.

Eurotunnel believes that the issue is political as well as practical and should be resolved by the British and French authorities. UK Home Secretary David Blunkett is meeting his French counterpart Daniel Vaillant on Wednesday.

Blunkett wants the French to take more effective action, while France blames generous British asylum laws for luring the hopeful would-be immigrants in the first place.

A French suggestion that British police should help patrol the tunnel area near Calais is likely to be rejected by Blunkett with Britain insisting that border security in France is purely a matter for the local police.

Pressure is mounting for a possible EU solution, with French Labour Minister Elizabeth Guigou attempting to reduce Anglo-French tension over the Sangatte camp by urging that it be dealt with "at the European level" -- ultimately through a common EU-wide standard for dealing with asylum claims.