France to shut Sangatte camp

Blunkett will rush through a new UK immigration bill to allow the camp to closed as early as possible

PARIS, France -- The Sangatte refugee camp near the French end of the Channel Tunnel is to be shut down.

The decision to close the controversial camp, which has soured relations between Britain and France, was taken at top-level talks between the two governments on Friday.

A joint-statement said: "The Sangatte centre will close three to six months after the coming into force of new laws and policies in the UK.

"This will mean that it could close in December (2002) or in the first quarter of next year."

UK Home Secretary David Blunkett and his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy agreed that the closure of the camp, housing about 1,500 would-be asylum seekers, will depend on the completion of the UK's new Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill.

As soon as it has gone through parliament and received Royal Assent, France will be ready to remove the Sangatte centre, from where hundreds of asylum seekers have been trying to reach Britain illegally aboard trains through the Channel Tunnel.

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Blunkett said he had already make provision for his new Bill to be speeded up, short-cutting the usual procedures, so that it could be in place by mid-October.

Blunkett added: "After so many years of disputes and difficult tremendous controversy over Sangatte, we are on the verge of not only finding a solution in relation to Sangatte, but on the real difficulty of people using clandestine entry into the UK as an alternative to proper, legitimate economic migration."

Sarkozy said it had been recognised that the "pull" of the UK for asylum seekers had been the reason why so many illegal immigrants arrived at Sangatte.

He said in the past Britain had accused France of not doing enough to police would-be asylum seekers at Sangatte, while France had accused Britain of maintaining asylum conditions in Britain which were too favourable.

Blunkett and Sarkozy had previously failed to agree a timetable to close the Sangatte centre but did set out a joint-funded plan to tighten security on the French side of the Channel.

After the first-round of talks, last month, Sarkozy said the Sangatte problem had "poisoned" relationships between France and the UK for more than three years."

The Sangatte 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 -- mostly Kurds and Afghans -- 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.