Brand new French camp for UK bound migrants

In spite of British pleas to clamp down on illegal immigration camps along the French coastline an expansive new tent city complete with kitchen, bedding, lounge and washing areas has opened this week in Steenvoorde.

British newspapers have labelled recent French efforts at the Calais Jungle camp a sham following the opening of the new centre which is located on the motorway at the entrance to the town and to Dunkirk. UK politicians have queried the wisdom of tearing down one camp only to build another just down the road, while also lambasting French immigration claims that the area would be turned into a water-tight fortress against illegal immigrants into Britain.

The Steenvoorde camp, near Lille, has the full support of the local Mayor who belongs to the UMP political party headed by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The camp has been licensed for six months with the full backing of French authorities.

Just weeks after the French Immigration Minister Eric Beeson lauded the police efforts in closing the Jungle the latest move has drawn calls of cynicism from British politicians. The camp is situated at the second last service station on the road to the Channel ports and is constantly filled with UK-bound lorries.

French officials have stated that they had no alternative but to establish the new centre which has in recent times become a haven for predominantly African migrants mainly from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea.

According to the mayor of Steenvoorde Jean-Pierre Bataille and the Terre d’Errance organisation which built the camp, the centre would play a vital role as a rest and recuperation site for UK-bound migrants. British authorities have claimed that many of the people smuggling rackets that existed in the Jungle would now have a new, legal home.