Calais: President Francois Hollande said on Monday that France will completely shut down "the Jungle" migrant camp in Calais and called on the UK to help deal with the plight of thousands of people whose dream is ultimately to get to Britain.
"The situation is unacceptable and everyone here knows it," Hollande said on a visit to the northern port city where as many as 10,000 migrants from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan live in squalor.
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Hollande vows to shut Calais camp
On his first visit to the migration flashpoint of Calais, French President Francois Hollande vows to close the so-called "Jungle" camp, adding that France must also ensure that migrants live in "dignified conditions".
"We must dismantle the camp completely and definitively," he said.
France plans to relocate the migrants in small groups around the country but right-wing opponents of the Socialist leader are raising the heat ahead of the election in April, accusing him of mismanaging a problem that is ultimately a British one.
The migrants want to enter the UK, but the British government argues that migrants seeking asylum need to do so under European Union law in the country where they enter.
Immigration was one of the main drivers of Britain's vote this year to leave the EU. It is also likely to be major factor in France's presidential election.
If France stopped trying to prevent migrants from entering the UK, Britain would ultimately find itself obliged to deal with the matter when asylum-seekers land on its shores a short distance by ferry or train from France's Calais coast.
Hollande bluntly reminded Britain of that, saying that he expected London to fully honour agreements on managing a flow of migrants.
"I also want to restate my determination that the British authorities play their part in the humanitarian effort that France is undertaking and that they continue to do that in the future," Hollande said.
London and Paris have struck agreements on issues such as the construction of a giant wall on the approach road to Calais port in an attempt to stop migrants who try daily to board cargo trucks bound for Britain.
Reuters