UK asylum plan: The French view

France may see the UK proposals as an electoral ploy

The BBC Paris office considers the likely reaction from the French Government to proposals from the UK Home Secretary Jack Straw for an EU-wide plan to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe.

Last week an Iraqi man became the latest victim of the daily dash for Britain from the French port of Calais. His mangled body was found beside railway lines near the entrance to the Channel tunnel.

A French government is unlikely to take too kindly to an initiative... that looks like the kind of "people-dumping" that Britain regularly accuses France of

"He must have tried to jump aboard when the train was setting out, but he lost his balance and fell onto the tracks," said Alain Bertrand, a spokesman for Eurotunnel.

He was carrying no identity papers. Police still do not know who he was.

The human cost of illegal immigration is not lost on the French, which is why they are certain not to want to dismiss the British government's latest proposals out of hand.

French welcome?

The idea, for example, that asylum seekers should be processed as near as possible to their country of origin is of obvious interest.

But far more problematic is the suggestion that illegal refugees caught in Dover after crossing from France should be immediately turned back.

From the Paris perspective, the initiative has a distinct sniff of media-driven kite flying by a Labour government fast approaching election time

A senior British official admitted in Paris that the French reaction when is likely to be "lukewarm at best".

Britain believes that the idea could serve French interests too because the number of asylum seekers in France is increasing even faster than in Britain.

In 1999, the last year for which figures are available, it stood at 30,862 - up 17% on 1998 - though that is still far short of the 76,000 recorded for Britain last year.

In theory France could take the same steps to turn back asylum seekers at its borders.

But in fact by its own admission France's main link in the immigration chain is as a transit route.

Migrants from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia cross into the country from Italy and Spain - or into ports by boat - with the aim of filtering up to Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.

Better conditions

If they are reluctant to stay in France, it is because they believe that conditions are better across the Channel.

If asylum seekers are reluctant to stay in France, it is because they know believe that conditions are better across the channel

The country's holding-camps - like the warehouses at Sangatte from which so many set out for Britain - are drafty and uncomfortable, and processing is slow.

A recent report from a government watchdog said the system was so overloaded that examination of an asylum seeker's dossier now took up to a year, as opposed to two months a decade ago.

A French government is unlikely to take too kindly to an initiative that will only aggravate these problems, especially if it looks like the kind of "people-dumping" of which Britain regularly accuses France.

More deeply, France is unclear how serious the proposals are. From the Paris perspective, the initiative has a distinct sniff of media-driven kite-flying by a Labour government fast approaching election time.