UK to press for Sangatte closure

Asylum seekers wanting access to Britain have thronged the Sangatte camp

LONDON, Britain -- Britain is to increase pressure on France to close a controversial refugee camp near to the entrance of the Channel Tunnel.

UK Home Secretary David Blunkett will hold talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, in London, on Tuesday.

Britain wants the camp, at Sangatte, to be closed because it says the occupants make regular attempts to illegally enter the UK through the tunnel, endangering their lives and bringing rail services to a standstill.

The talks are the latest in a process of dialogue between the London and Paris governments.

France has already agreed to increase policing at the camp and to install fencing. (Full story)

But freight companies and rail operators say they have lost £10 million ($14.60 million) through cancellations of more than half its services during the past six months.

Sarkozy visited the Sangatte camp last month and said France too wanted it to close, but he set no date for the closure.

French officials have since told the European Commission and Britain it could take several months before any such measures could be taken.

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Speaking on Monday, a spokesperson for Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair told Reuters: "There is going to have to be a lot of detailed discussion, but there is a shared and common understanding of the problem."

A Home Office spokeswoman added: "We have made it clear the presence of the camp at Sangatte is not helpful and we would wish to see it closed, but obviously it is a complex issue and no decisions have been made as yet."

Immigration has been a widely debated issue in Europe with radical right-wing parties in countries like France and The Netherlands pushing anti-foreigner agendas and exploiting public unease about large numbers of immigrants.

The Anglo-French talks come just days after a European Union summit in Seville, Spain, during which tighter border controls were agreed in an attempt to keep out the estimated 500,000 annual illegal immigrants. (Full story)

The text from the Seville summit urges the EU to actively seek cooperation from third countries to stem illegal migration -- but stopped short from calling for sanctions against nations that fail to comply.

Sangatte is located near Calais, on the French side of the Channel Tunnel, and the camp is used to house hundreds of asylum seekers.

A converted hangar, the camp is on land owned by Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel and was requisitioned in 1999 to house up to 200 people. But the numbers held there have been as high as 1,800.

Eurotunnel says it intercepted about 18,500 refugees trying to enter the tunnel in the first half of 2001 alone.

Last year, six people died trying to sneak through the tunnel, and more than 100 were injured, the French Interior Ministry said.