France and UK deny Sangatte deal

Police stand guard over Sangatte refugees

LONDON, England -- Britain and France have denied reports a deal has been struck to close the Sangatte refugee camp in Calais in return for the UK accepting asylum-seekers housed there.

Media reports on both sides of the channel said the UK's Home Secretary David Blunkett and the new centre-right government of Prime Minster Jean-Pierre Raffarin have come to an agreement.

The controversial Red Cross centre officially holds 650 refugees, mainly Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians, trying to get into the UK, but it has seen its population balloon to 1,600 at times.

Britain would take in 1,300 of the refugees under the camp closure agreement, the reports had said.

The UK's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw denied such an agreement was in place, while Blunkett told Cabinet ministers that he has had general discussions with his French opposite number, but negotiations over Sangatte had not begun.

"There is no truth (in reports) that we had even started negotiations with the French over Sangatte," a spokesman for British Prime Minster Tony Blair quoted Blunkett as telling ministers on Thursday.

French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope also said no decision has been made, but an announcement would be "made shortly."

"Discussions are in progress," he was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy visited the camp as part of his law-and-order campaign on Thursday ahead of National Assembly elections in June.

Sarkozy and Blunkett will meet after the elections, the ministry said.

But European Union authorities were quoted by Reuters news agency on Thursday as saying French officials had been summoned to meet with their British counterparts at the European Commission next Thursday.

All the sides will discuss possible solutions in an attempt to prevent serious delays that have hit rail freight services as refugees swarm rail yards and tracks.

Sangatte, which was converted in 1999 from an abandoned Eurotunnel warehouse, has been an issue of political tension between Britain and France ever since.

The British government has called for it to be closed, as have freight companies and rail operators who are seeking compensation for the £10 million ($14.60 million) they say they have lost from having to cancel more than half their tunnel services during the last six months.

Eurotunnel, the tunnel operator, has failed in several legal attempts to have the camp closed down.

The company says it intercepted about 18,500 refugees trying to cross the tunnel in the first half of 2001 alone, while more than 1,700 freight trains through the tunnel reportedly have been cancelled since November because of stowaways.

Many of the refugees attempt dangerous trips, resulting in death occasionally.

Six people died last year trying to sneak through the tunnel, and more than 100 were injured, the French Interior Ministry says.

The French are unhappy with the fights that break out among the camp's inmates. French President Jacques Chirac had made increased security part of his May re-election promises.

But Nick Hardwick, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council in the UK, told the Press Association that closing Sangatte would not prevent refugees seeking asylum in Britain nor the "inconsistencies" of asylum policy across Europe. It would also not address French "failings" to deal with the issue.

"This witch hunt against clearly desperate people must stop now," he said. "Refugees at Sangatte and elsewhere are human beings the same as you and me and by not addressing their humanity, we are witnessing similar scenes to the 1930s."