Reid to hold talks over 'new Sangatte'

John Reid, the Home Secretary, is to hold urgent talks this week with the French over plans for a second Sangatte refugee camp.

The French authorities have given the green light for a welfare centre in Calais for migrants. But there is alarm in Whitehall that this could attract people intending to smuggle themselves into Britain.

Mr Reid will meet his French counterpart, François Baroin, on Tuesday in a bid to head off a crisis over what has been dubbed Sangatte Two.

The original Sangatte camp dealt with 70,000 people during its three years in operation. It gained notoriety as a launchpad for up to 10,000 illegal immigrants entering Britain each year, before being closed in 2002. Since then the number of refugees entering the UK illegally has dropped to 1,500 a year.