UK News 03-09-2001 Review of the Year: 100 Asylum Seekers Storm Channel Tunnel who: The Home Office what: Says David Blunkett urged French minister to close controversial refugee camp where: LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "In one of the most flagrant breaches of security" at the Channel Tunnel, says The Guardian this morning, 100 Kurdish and Afghan men were caught trying to enter Britain on Saturday night. The refugees bypassed 20 miles of high perimeter fences topped with razor wire and were caught on CCTV cameras "jeering and taunting security guards as they broke through barbed wire fencing and charged down the tracks, throwing stones at a passing train." "Home Secretary David Blunkett is set to clash with French Ministers over plans for a second refugee camp" near the tunnel, reports The Mirror this morning. "Mr Blunkett has told the French that the notorious Sangatte centre near the tunnel entrance is causing a major headache for Britain." Mr Blunkett is expected to be angered by the news which comes just a few weeks after he called on the French to close the existing centre (which houses either 1,200 asylum seekers or 700, depending on which newspaper you read this morning). He told French Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant that the Sangatte camp "was not helping" Britain`s efforts to prevent asylum-seekers from entering the country. "People are not being held at Sangatte while their claims are processed," complained shadow home secretary Anne Widdecombe yesterday, quoted in The Independent. "They are being held there while they make repeated attempts to enter Britain." Elsewhere, The Scotsman reports that dozens of protesters have gathered outside the privately-owned Dungavel Detention Centre for asylum seekers in South Lanarkshire, which opens for business today. [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!