The French authorities have given 60 foreign migrants holed up inside a church in Calais another 24 hours to leave or face the risk of being removed by force.
The migrants, mainly Kurds from northern Iraq, are demanding to be allowed into the nearby Red Cross-run Sangatte centre, which was closed to new arrivals last week under an agreement between the French and British governments. They have threatened to go on hunger strike.
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Illegal migrants who took shelter in Saint Pierre Saint Paul's church in Calais hold a poster as riot police ring the area Photo: Getty Images
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With no electricity or toilets in the building, conditions in the harbour-side Saint Pierre-Saint Paul church are deteriorating rapidly.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the refugees would be removed "within 24 hours". Riot police have taken up positions outside the building.
Local politicians and church leaders have been trying to persuade the migrants to accept the government's offer of shelter in other parts of France, but they are reluctant to give up their hopes of making the short crossing from Calais to Britain. About 30 of the migrants agreed to leave the church last night and were taken away by coach, and another 10 left this morning.
Sangatte has for three years served as a base for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers heading to England, but it was made off-limits to new arrivals a week ago.
Only those migrants holding identity badges will be allowed into the centre until its planned closure by next April, and others are being told must shelter elsewhere while they choose whether to apply for asylum in France.
Britain and France are hoping that tough measures on both sides of the English Channel will discourage asylum-seekers from congregating again at Calais.
But migrants questioned on the streets of Calais today made clear they still regarded Britain as their favoured destination.
"We all want to go to England. The British colonised us, so now we can go and look for work there," said a Kurd, insisting the new British rules stopping work permits for asylum-seekers would make no difference. "It will always be easier than here," he said.
AFP