(3 Dec 2002)
Day shots
1. Wide shot entrance to Sangatte refugee camp
2. Mid shot police at entrance to Sangatte
3. Wide shot Sangatte
4. Wide shot group of Iraqi Kurd Asylum Seekers who want to register at Sangatte
5. Mid shot French police officer walking towards asylum seekers
6. Asylum seekers running
7. French police trying to round up asylum seekers trying to get into Sangatte
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Omar Hassan, Iraqi Kurd asylum seeker:
"We don't want to stay in France because the government of France is friends with the Iraqi government. We are enemies of the Iraqi dictator. Sometimes America and England want to hit Iraq but France says no, we don't want to. We don't believe in the government of France because perhaps tomorrow the French government sends us to Iraq."
9. Wide shot police vans
10. Mid shot police man arguing with asylum seeker
11. Mid shot Iraqis holding up pieces of paper given to them by the French authorities
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corinne Perthuis, United Nations High Commission for Refugees spokeswoman:
"At the UNHCR we are preparing the list of the Iraqis and the Afghan families who will be sent to the UK. We will give this list to the (British) home office and then the Home Office will decide who will be transferred. And probably tomorrow the first transfer will happen."
13. Mid shot asylum seekers
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Corinne Perthuis, United Nations High Commission for Refugees spokeswoman:
"The solution for them (asylum seekers not registered at Sangatte) is to apply for asylum in France but this is not a UN-H-C-R task - it is in the hands of the French authorities."
15. Various asylum seekers being rounded up
Night shots
16. Wide shot police and asylum seekers
17. Mid shot asylum seekers
18. Wide shot entrance to Sangatte
STORYLINE:
Asylum seekers in Calais continued to try to gain access to the nearby Sangatte refugee camp on Tuesday despite missing the deadline for new registrations.
Sangatte closed its doors to new arrivals on November 5. On Monday the British and French government announced that it would close completely on December 30.
In return, Britain will grant working visas to to about 1,000 Iraqi Kurds at the camp. British Home Secretary David Blunkett said some of the Afghan refugees at the camp who have direct family connections in Britain would also be allowed to enter the country.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France would assume responsibility for the remainder of the 4,800 refugees registered with the camp.
The Red Cross centre at Sangatte, near the French coast, has been a major source of disagreement between Britain and France. London had been pressing French officials to shut the camp to discourage illegal immigration.
But the announcement of the closure of the camp has not discouraged hoards of new asylum seekers who continually arrive at the centre.
Around 100 Iraqi Kurds tried in vain to register at the camp on Tuesday.
Refugee Omar Hassan says he does not trust the French government and believes they may try to return him to Iraq.
UNHCR spokesman Corinne Perthuis told APTN that the UN body is currently trying to draw up a list of the most vulnerable refugees registered at Sangatte for transfer to the UK.
She said that she hoped the first group of refugees would leave for the UK on Wednesday.
Perthuis said that those outside the camp should seek asylum in France.
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