A planned welfare centre offering showers and soup to migrants near Calais threatens to encourage illegal immigration into Britain, the Conservatives claimed yesterday.

The new centre will provide information on how to claim asylum to the hundreds of migrants sleeping in makeshift camps in an area known as “the jungle”.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, will raise the issue when he holds long-arranged talks with François Baroin, the new French Interior Minister, in London on Tuesday.

But the Home Office made clear that the primary item for discussion was counter-terrorism rather than the threat of illegal immigration.

Opponents of the Calais plan have already described the facilities as “Sangatte II” after the refugee camp shut down in 2002, but the new centre will not provide anywhere for migrants to sleep. It will offer food, showers and information and advice to the hundreds who are now sleeping rough.

Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman, said that the proposed centre would act as a magnet by encouraging people to congregate and attempt to enter Britain illegally.

“It’s clearly Sangatte II. I think it’s hugely disappointing that the French Government is allowing this to happen,” he said.

“They made an agreement with the British Government a few years ago that they weren’t going to have facilities in Calais which just encourage people to arrive there to try to come to this country illegally.

“It’s disappointing that our own Home Office doesn’t seem to be doing anything about this. As I understand it, they are saying, ‘It’s no Sangatte II, we shouldn’t worry about it’.”

Mr Green said that most of the refugees were being transported by commercial people-traffickers, whom he described as “some of the most evil people in the world”.

He accused the Home Office of being “appallingly complacent” over the issue.

No minister from the Home Office commented on the planned welfare centre yesterday. Instead Lin Homer, the director general of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, and Brodie Clark, the head of UK border control, were put forward for media broadcasts.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is a serious situation. It speaks volumes about Dr Reid’s attitude to dealing with this situation that there is not a minister in sight.

“Any Home Secretary should take responsibility for his or her brief and not hide behind officials.”

Officers from Kent County Council have visited Calais on a fact-finding mission during which they discussed the plans with local officials.

They hope that it will not become a “pull factor” encouraging other migrants to head towards Calais and then to try to enter Britain. But the officers admit that this will depend on how the French authorities police the centre.

Richard Ashworth, the Conservative MEP for the South East, said that the new centre had the “right intentions, but ultimately they are creating another hub for people wanting to enter the UK unlawfully”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “There have always been humanitarian services for migrants in the Calais area. We have had assurances from the French that they are opposed to any centre which will attract illegal immigrants and traffickers.”

Official figures show that the number of illegal immigrants detected entering Kent from Calais fell 88 per cent from more than 10,000 in 2002 to 1,500 in 2006.

The Red Cross-run Sangatte refugee camp in northern France closed in December 2002 after an agreement between Britain and France.

Sangatte I

1999 Sangatte Red Cross Centre opens

400 Original number held

1,500 By December 2002

2002 Closed under Anglo-French deal

1,200 Migrants taken by Britain under deal

300 Migrants taken by France

67,000 Passed through it during its operation

Source: Home Office

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