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Instant detention centre to deter Calais migrants
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor17.03.09
MINISTERS are planning to set up a detention centre in France to hold hundreds of migrants who are gathering in Calais in a bid to come to Britain.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas said the joint Anglo-French camp would be set up "pretty damn quick" to send a blunt message to illegal immigrants that they would not be allowed into the UK.
Charter flights would also be arranged by the French and British governments to take detainees back to Afghanistan and Iraq as a further measure to protect Britain's borders. Mr Woolas declined to give further detail about how the camp would work and who might be detained, but said the large numbers gathering on the French border showed the difficulty they had entering Britain.
He said: "We have got to get the message back to Afghanistan and Iraq that it's not worth trying."
