France should tear up the deal which allows Britain to impose border checks on refugees in Calais unless it is radically changed, a senior French politician has warned.
Xavier Bertrand, president of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region, said action was needed to deal with the sprawling Jungle camp in which 9,000 people are thought to live.
Currently, under Le Touquet treaty, British officials check passports in France and vice versa, but migrants in France cannot claim UK asylum until they cross the channel.
This is thought to be one of the reasons why large numbers of people have gathered at Calais.
The regional president claimed that while the 2003 Touquet agreement helps to fight terrorism, it was not an effective arrangement for dealing with the numbers of migrants.
Mr Betrand suggested that to prevent migrants from risking their lives crossing to the UK, "hotspots" should be established in Calais so they can apply for UK asylum on French soil.
If successful they would be taken to the UK, and if unsuccessful they would be deported from France to their countries of origin.
Mr Bertrand said: "[Migrants] want to go to England. Why? Because they know it is possible to work in the UK.
"I want a new treatment of asylum claims for migrants who want to claim asylum in England. It is not possible to keep the border here without a new agreement between the French and British governments."
Mr Bertrand added that if the UK did not agree to open a discussion on the matter, France would pull out of Le Touquet treaty altogether.
As regional president, the Republican has no power to change the treaty, but he is not the first right-wing politician in France to publicly denounce it.
Two candidates for next year’s presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Juppe, have claimed the treaty is not fit for purpose and implied the border should be moved to British soil.
Speaking at a political rally recently, Mr Sarkozy said: “I'm demanding the opening of a centre in Britain to deal with asylum seekers there so that Britain can do the work that concerns them."
Sir Peter Ricketts, former British ambassador to Paris, said Mr Bertrand’s suggestion of establishing UK asylum claim stations on the French border would lead to more migrants arriving in Calais.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: "The asylum system has always worked on principle that people apply for asylum where they are.
"As soon as you suggest that people can apply for UK asylum in Calais, that would create a huge magnet, bringing more and more migrants into Calais. It wouldn’t help the French deal with the problem. It would make it worse."
The number of migrants living in the so-called "Jungle" camp has risen from 5,178 to 9,106 in four months between May and August, according to the latest census by Help Refugees and l’Auberge des Migrants.
The charities said the number was expected to reach over 10,000 in September.
