Hollande to close Calais Jungle camp

French President Francois Hollande has vowed to shut down the notorious Jungle migrant camp in Calais within weeks by dispatching its residents to dozens of reception centres dotted across the country.

Around 9000 people will be moved from Calais to 140 centres across France in the coming weeks, Hollande said during a visit to one of the new centres in the city of Tours in the Loire Valley.

The camp, whose population has doubled since June to around 10,000 migrants most of whom are trying to get into England on the back of trucks, has for years poisoned relations between Britain and France.

The latest plan to dismantle it is to send groups of 40 to 50 migrants for a limited period of three to four months to the reception centres, said Hollande, who is to visit Calais tomorrow but who will not venture into the camp itself.

Those who qualify for asylum criteria will be allowed to stay in France, while those who do not will be deported, the president said.

‘‘There should be no camps in France,’’ he said.

Migrants and immigration have become key themes as French politicians limber up for next year’s presidential election. Several Right-wing opposition leaders have vowed to tear up an agreement under which border controls of people heading for the UK take place on the French side of the Channel.