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France's Macron in Calais on foray into migrant dilemma

CALAIS, France (AP) - President Emmanuel Macron is making a foray into the symbolic heart of France's migrant problem with a visit Tuesday to the port city of Calais, where hundreds of people trying to cross to Britain are hiding out.

The northern city is a magnet for many migrants because it is the closest point between France and Britain and has two cross-Channel transport systems, the Eurotunnel and ferries.

Macron wants to change a 2003 border control agreement that allows British officials to help carry out checks in Calais, effectively moving the British border to the French port city. That has spared Britain from receiving floods of migrants at its doorstep like other European countries, putting the burden of blocking their entry to the U.K. on France.

Macron is meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May Thursday in Sandhurst near London to discuss the issue.

Negotiations over changes to the accords are in progress, including the creation of a French-British team to handle cases of migrants with "legitimate" reasons to go to Britain, according to a top official in Macron's office who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Macron talked briefly Tuesday with Sudanese migrants at a special center in Croisilles in northern France where migrants can apply for asylum in France. Many migrants only stay briefly in such centers and quickly resume efforts to sneak across the Channel.

One migrant applying for asylum in France, identified only by his first name Ahmed, 25, said he travelled from Sudan through Libya and Italy to end up in Calais last year.

He told Macron he wants to "learn French, get training and find a job as auto mechanic." He said he had no choice but to leave his country because his mother was "killed" and his family "disappeared." Macron told Ahmed his story meets the criteria to be granted asylum.

Macron is expected to give a speech to security forces in Calais, whose action to hold back migrants is decried as over-zealous by humanitarian groups.

Just over a year ago, Europe's largest migrant slum, on the edge of Calais, was dismantled and some 7,000 migrants sent to centers around France.

With 400 to 700 migrants there today, the situation is in many ways worse, said Francois Guennoc of Auberge des Migrants, a leading aid group in Calais. The group is one of two associations that have declined to take part in a meeting with Macron.

"It's catastrophic," he said, because migrants have no right to pitch tents, to ensure no new camps spring up.

Tensions among migrants also flare up occasionally. Up to 100 Afghans and Eritreans wielding iron bars and sticks, clashed Sunday night. Police, using tear gas, separated them, officials said.

The president's trip is a taste of a tough new immigration and asylum bill to be presented to the Cabinet in February.

An encounter with Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart may be his biggest challenge. She has spent years, with some success, pressing the government for funds, police and other help in dealing with migrants.

Bouchart is among critics of the 2003 Touquet Accords that put the security burden on France.

France is pressing Britain to take in more isolated minors and seeking more funds from Britain to improve border controls. Britain has paid 15 million euros to improve port and Eurotunnel security, according to the official.

May's spokesman, James Slack, declined comment on any new deal before Macron's visit to Britain.

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Ganley reported from Paris. Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Oct.23 2017 file photo, migrants from Iraqi Kurdistan queue for food provided by French charity organization, in Grand-Synthe, near the northern France town of Dunkirk. French officials say Monday Jan.15, 2018 France wants to sign a new deal with the U.K. that would involve greater British financing of the costs of handling migrants camped in the northern French port city of Calais. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) The Associated Press
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