Temporary home to thousands of migrants trying to reach Britain, the French city of Calais is a major battlefield for presidential candidates who are seizing on fears of immigration in campaigning for spring elections — and following in the footsteps of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, competing in the conservative primary in November, visited Calais on Wednesday.
Sarkozy didn’t go to the makeshift camp known as the “jungle.” Instead he met security forces in charge of protecting the ferry port and preventing migrants from entering the area. He made no public comment during the visit.
Presidential contender Le Pen, well positioned in polls, has made fighting immigration her longstanding issue. The president of the National Front is campaigning to leave the EU and its visa-free zone, which would allow France to reinstate controls at national borders.
Sarkozy’s rivals for the conservative nomination have also visited Calais, and President Francois Hollande — who has not formally declared his candidacy — is considering going to Calais next week. The migrants from Africa, the Middle East and beyond camped in Calais are a thorn in the side of the Socialist government, the symbol of its failure to find effective responses to Europe’s migrant crisis.
French conservative politicians argue that Britain should be responsible for dealing with people who hope for asylum in the UK They want to renegotiate a 2003 treaty that effectively puts the British border in Calais, leaving French authorities to police migrants trying to cross the Channel. Sarkozy signed that treaty as interior minister, but now he wants to send migrants to a center on British territory. The UK would be in charge of repatriating those who would not be granted a legal status, he has said.

Source: Arab News