May rebuffs Hollande’s demand for UK to take in more child migrants

under pressure to do more as rhetoric in France hardens towards Britain.

Visiting Doue-la-Fontaine, in western France, Mr Hollande yesterday pledged to make sure that those refugees still on the Calais camp site would be moved on “very quickly”.

“We had to rise to the challenge of the refugee issue. We could not tolerate the camp and we will not tolerate any others,” he said. “There are 1,500 unaccompanied minors left in Calais and they will be very quickly dispatched to other [reception] centres.”

Mr Hollande talked to Mrs May to ensure British officials “accompany the minors to these centres and would play their part in subsequently welcoming them to the United Kingdom”.

In Paris, more than 100 Left-wing politicians sent a letter to Ms Rudd, calling on the Government “immediately” to take in child migrants in Calais with links to family in Britain.

“[They] are not seeking any favours: they have the right, in line with current international regulations and British law, to go to Britain,” the letter read.

“Their transfer to Britain is urgent. We ask you to take your responsibilities and assume your moral duty by immediately organising their arrival.”

Pascal Brice, the head of France’s Ofpra refugee agency, has also criticised the UK for not taking in more child migrants, saying: “We’ve done Britain’s work in tending to the adults.

“The least they can do is take care of the isolated minors who are now at the CAP [temporary lodgings] and who have an interest in going to Britain.”

A government spokesman said it was “firmly committed to working with the French to safeguard and protect children who remain in Calais, and that includes transferring eligible children to the UK safely and as soon as possible.”

“We have already transferred a considerable number of unaccompanied minors to the UK,” they said, adding “several hundred more” young people will arrive in the coming weeks.