The Daily Telegraph

French rule out migrant centre in Calais

- By Henry Samuel in Paris

FRANCE’S interior minister yesterday ruled out creating a welcome centre for migrants in Calais and pledged to deploy extra riot police amid rising tensions at the northern French port.

Gérard Collomb’s comments came a day after President Emmanuel Macron called for “the greatest humanity” in dealing with the migrant issue.

Mr Collomb said he wanted to avoid the Calais area becoming an “abscess” that would lure migrants eight months after dismantlin­g the notorious “Jungle” camp. Since then several hundred have returned to the port.

Mr Collomb said: “We’ve seen this before, it starts with a few hundred people and ends with several thousand.

“That’s why we don’t want a centre here.”

Instead, he insisted, “we are going to reinforce security with the arrival of two additional mobile security force units to stop any new camps from forming”.

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