Sangatte II 'will be new illegal gateway to UK'

Charities were given a green light to open a 'welcome centre' in Calais to give refugees hot showers, free meals and clothes - but, they insist, no beds.

But critics warned that the centre would become a magnet for asylum seekers determined to smuggle themselves into the UK.

MPs said that 'as night follows day' it would become a makeshift camp for refugees. One Euro MP said it would 'rapidly turn into Sangatte Two'.

France was accused of reneging on the deal to shut the original Sangatte refugee camp near the French port.

It was closed in December 2002 after Britain protested it was being used as a haven for people-smugglers.

Refugees regularly made the short walk from Sangatte - which housed 67,000 immigrants over three years - to the nearby Channel Tunnel entrance, to try to jump on to slow-moving trains, or hide aboard lorries crossing on ferries.

But there are still an estimated 1,500 refugees in Calais living in squalid makeshift camps - prompting charities to get permission to open around six bungalow-style buildings close to the town's main ferry port.

A spokesman for Calais Town Hall said it had agreed to 'the creation of a refugee welcome centre without lodgings'. It will be open by autumn.

It intends to provide 'care and support' for up to 400 Britainbound refugees - many from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Iran - at a time.

But opponents say it will lure thousands more illegal immigrants to Calais - just like the old Sangatte Red Cross Centre, which offered accommodation, showers, televisions and phones.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: 'This blows out of the water Labour's assurances they had reached an agreement to resolve this issue.

'Yet again we see that under John Reid the shambles at the Home Office is getting worse.'

Sir Andrew Green, of the thinktank MigrationWatch, said: 'To have facilities for refugees right next to the port is adding insult to injury.'

Tory MP Mike Penning said: 'As sure as night follows day this will become an overnight centre. Will they turn people out into the rain at night?

'The Prime Minister promised to resolve this problem with the French authorities. It appears he has failed.'

Richard Ashworth, Conservative MEP for the South East, said recently: 'A single dedicated centre like this will just become a magnet for people-traffickers and a starting point for organised efforts to enter the UK unlawfully. I can see it rapidly turning into Sangatte 2.'

After Sangatte was bulldozed, the numbers drawn to the town fell. Security at the port and around the Eurotunnel entrance, where freight trains slow to a stop and used to be easy to board, was increased. Regular searches and scans of lorries on their way to England were also carried out.

But disturbances including fights have become commonplace around Calais in recent months as migrants from across Eastern Europe and Asia mill about, attempting to find a passage to Britain.

Many pay people smugglers as little as £200 for places in the back of lorries or on ferries heading for the south of England.

Jean-Claude Lenoir, of Salam - one of two charities running the new centre - said: 'All that we ask is that refugees are given a place to get away from the trouble they experience out on the street.'

A report by the charity Medecins du Monde warned of a 'major humanitarian crisis' if the refugees were not given shelter.

The Home Office said the number of refugees caught sneaking into Britain from Calais fell from 10,000 in 2002 to 1,500 last year, a fall of about 88 per cent.

A spokesman said this proved measures to tackle the problem were working. He added: 'There have always been humanitarian services for refugees in Calais.

'From the French Government there are no plans to establish a new Sangatte-style camp.'