Official Welfare Centre to Open in Calais?

According to the Daily Telegraph: “A new welcome centre for UK bound illegal migrants is to open in Calais before the end of this year”.

“French officials insisted that it would only be a “day centre” for foreigners who are in a particularly bad way including the sick, pregnant women and minors under the age of 18. But the plans agreed by the Administrative Court of Lille include central heating, hot showers, and a kitchen. Officials defended the plan as a humanitarian response.One said: “There are more than 1000 migrants sleeping rough in the town, and with temperatures dropping their living conditions are getting worse.”“He said that September’s destruction of The Jungle, an illegal shanty town full of mainly Afghan young men, had not had the desired effect.

“It did not persuade them to leave, so we have to offer them a basic level of support,” the official added.”

Note that this new welfare centre will not offer accommodation. What this means for the current policy of the police destroying all accomodation/bedding that those sleeping rough in the Calais area is now unclear.

It’s a sign of the times that French Officialdom have kept such a basic humanitarian plan secret; and once it had been discovered had to defend it as if was something outrageous.

The Tory Shadow Immigration response is a foretaste of the roasting that the idea will get this side of the channel:

“This is another gesture of contempt from France to Britain. The only result of this will be to encourage more potential illegal immigrants to try to break our laws.

It’s such a perfect combo for the right-wing press: The Wogs and The Frogs Begin at Calais*

*”The wogs begin at Calais” was originated by George Wigg, Labour MP for Dudley, in 1949. In a parliamentary debate concerning the Burmese, Wigg shouted at the Tory benches, “The Honourable Gentleman and his friends think they are all ‘wogs’. Indeed, the Right Honourable Member for Woodford [i.e. Winston Churchill] thinks that the ‘wogs’ begin at Calais.”[3] Wigg’s coinage, sometimes paraphrased as “Wogs start at the Channel” or “Wogs start at Dover”, is used to characterise a stodgy Europhobic viewpoint, and more generally the view that Britain (more so England) is inherently separate from (and superior to) the Continent and the rest of the World –  A view only now maintained by the stupid and the bigoted, which unfortuantley includes much of the media. In this case, “wog” is used to compare any foreign, non-English person to those more traditionally labeled “wogs”.