The Daily Telegraph
 By David Bamber
Feb 25, 2001

MORE than 100 Kurdish illegal immigrants are believed to be heading for Britain after
disappearing from a holding camp in the south of France.

They form part of the group of 900 Kurds who were discovered on board a ship which was
beached eight days ago on the French Riviera by a gang of people smugglers. Other
immigrants have headed for Germany. Police and immigration officials at Channel ports in
Britain and at the Eurotunnel terminal are on standby after French officials revealed that the
group had disappeared from their camp in southern France.

On Friday night, 13 Kurds were arrested in Germany. French police believe that others could
be trying to reach the Sangatte refugee centre outside Calais, a staging post on the way into
Britain. A spokesman for the French Red Cross confirmed that more than 100 refugees from
the ship had left their shelter at a military base near the southern town of Frejus during the
last few days.

A Red Cross worker at the camp said: "We have noticed the numbers leaving when we serve
daily meals. They have papers, they are free to go where they want within France. The
situation is difficult to manage at the moment because of the numerous unannounced and
unpredictable departures." The worker said that mainly young and single people were
leaving the base.

Some of the refugees have told French journalists that local immigration officials had
advised them to cross the Channel to Britain because they would get "better
treatment".Thirteen of the Kurds who have vanished from the camp, including six children
aged between three and 10, were detained in Cologne on Friday along with a person accused
of helping them to cross the border illegally. Martine Campi, a French government
immigration official said the asylum seekers were handed over to police at the German
border and then sent to the French town of Florange, where they were being held.

A total of 912 Kurds sought refuge in France last weekend after their ship, the East Sea, was
beached. The refugees were rescued from the rusty Cambodia-registered freighter after it
was driven onto rocks on the French Riviera by its crew, who were part of what border
police described as a joint Iraqi and Turkish mafia gang.

The French interior ministry has issued the rescued Kurds with a week-long pass that does
not give them permission to leave France for another European Union country. There are
only limited border controls between France and Germany, Italy and the Benelux states and
many could try to smuggle themselves into Britain.

Last night David Lidington, the shadow Home Office minister, said: "The message to Jack
Straw is clear and simple, any of these Kurds who come to Britain must be sent straight back
to France." Mr Straw, the Home Secretary, has pledged not to allow Kurds from the beached
ship to stay in Britain.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com