CALAIS, France, Feb 13 (AFP)  Two Iraqi Kurds have been detained following a
 weekend riot in a Red Cross centre that houses migrants attempting to find their way across the
 English Channel, police said Tuesday.

 The pair will appear in court on Wednesday and are expected to be charged with violence and
 extortion following a fight on Sunday in which 13 migrants were hurt, two of them seriously,
 police commissioner Denis Perrin told AFP.

 A row between Afghan and Kurdish migrants over an alleged extortion racket descended into a
 full-fledged brawl at the centre in Sangatte, near the English Channel port of Calais in northern
 France.

 Riot police were called out to quell the violence.

 The centre is a converted building that used to be part of the Eurotunnel complex that links
 Britain to France through a tunnel under the channel.

 It houses people from more than 15 countries, most of whom were caught by French authorities
 while trying to enter Britain without the necessary visas.

 Some 782 migrants were on the centre's register on Sunday, even though the centre's maximum
 capacity is set at 600.

 The incident came just two days after plans to tighten immigration controls were agreed at an
 Anglo-French summit in the French town of Cahors.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com