French government declares Sangatte must be shut down

Interior minister uses flying visit to camp to announce an initiative to resolve friction over refugees crossing into Britain

The French government accepted yesterday that the Sangatte refugee centre should be shut down but warned that a "hurried'' closure was neither feasible nor desirable.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, used a flying visit to the asylum-seeker camp near Calais to announce that his interim right-wing administration would improve security and solve a point of growing friction between London and Paris by securing the "long-term closure''.

But the minister, who took up his post two weeks ago after a tumultuous French presidential election in which the anti-immigration National Front made sweeping gains, insisted there was no prospect of the camp, which houses 1,300 almost entirely male refugees, shutting rapidly.

He told a news conference held in government offices in Calais: "Everyone understands that the long-term closure of Sangatte must be an objective but it cannot be the first move. An abrupt and hurried closure would create more problems than it would solve.''

The announcement came as Downing Street confirmed that negotiations about the future of Sangatte were taking place but denied reports that Britain had been asked to take up to half of the inhabitants of the camp, which is run by the Red Cross.

Mr Sarkozy appeared to back Number 10's line by denying that the issue had been raised during a 45-minute discussion last week with his opposite number, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett. However Sangatte will top the agenda when the two men meet in London on 17 June.

The French minister, who met Red Cross officials and medical staff during his brief visit yesterday, insisted it was "premature'' to discuss detailed proposals.

In an oblique reference to French complaints about what it sees as Britain's failure to address its ongoing appeal to asylum-seekers by tightening up on work and welfare opportunities, Mr Sarkozy said "the question of the attractiveness'' of Sangatte as a means of reaching England needed to be resolved. He added: "It is an absolute necessity to find a solution to a problem which is no longer acceptable to anyone.''

In an attempt to meet concerns of freight operators about the Frethun terminal, it was announced that a further 30 full-time border patrol officers will be added in September and extra security staff brought in to guard the trains.

In London a cabinet meeting was told by the Prime Minister that the British Government sought to "deal with asylum, not exploit it" in the light of growing gains by Europe's right wing.

Tony Blair's spokesman said the renewed focus in France was welcome. "Events in Europe in recent weeks have resulted in a mental gear change which we hope will turn into a practical gear change in relation to these issues."

Downing Street also took the unusual step of confirming the contents of a leaked memo outlining radical plans to use British warships to intercept people-traffickers and RAF planes to deport refugees.

Meanwhile in an article today in Tribune magazine, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, stresses that the lesson of the rise of the far right across Europe is that parties of the left must "never shirk from addressing issues of immigration, law and order and race relations".

"We have continually to stay connected with our electorates, consistently listen for what's on their minds, and responding above all and not dodging, the most difficult issues they raise," he writes.

* Latent xenophobia in Britain and the rest of Europe was ignited by the events of 11 September, a report said yesterday as it highlighted a catalogue of attacks on Muslims.

The report highlighted physical assaults of Muslim men and women, arson attacks on mosques and a "vitriolic" campaign by British tabloid newspapers against asylum-seekers.

The document, compiled by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, also cites comments critical of Islam by senior politicians, including the Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi, and the former British prime minister, Baroness Thatcher.

Launching the report, Bob Purkiss, chairman of the centre, said that 11 September "has, in some cases, merely acted as a detonator of feelings that we have failed to adequately address."

"If it is right for Europe to give a lead where there is ethnic tension elsewhere in the world, then it is imperative that it puts its own house in order if it is to be listened to," he added.

The study reproduces five pages worth of reports of physical or verbal violence against Muslims in Britain, including gang attacks, explosions, hate mail, threatening grafitti and an incident where 10 pigs' heads were left outside an Essex mosque. The report also says that, in Britain, there has been a wider media campaign against immigrants.