A vast charity camp for illegal migrants heading towards England has opened in northern France.
As fears grew that it will become a magnet for thousands more, officials said they had 'no alternative' but to allow it to be put it in place.
It is situated at Steenvoorde, next door to a motorway service station filled with lorries heading towards Channel ports at Calais and Dunkirk.
The new camp has been set up just weeks after the so-called 'Jungle' in Calais was razed to the ground Last night dozens slept in tents equipped with beds and showers. There are also cooking facilities and a clothes store.
The town council gave the camp the go-ahead at the end of last month, less than 24 hours after the destruction of the so-called 'Jungle', a shanty town housing hundreds of Britain-bound migrants in Calais.
Steenvoorde, near Lille on the French border with Belgium, has become a magnet for mainly African migrants, Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians, who every night try to stow away on board trucks parked at the A25 layby.
The new camp is licenced for six months and has the backing of the regional governor, the Sous Prefet.
Town mayor Jean-Pierre Bataille claims Steenvoorde has become 'an important stage' on the road from third world countries to the UK.
The Terre d'Errance Steenvoorde charity, which is running the camp, said it was intended to act as a 'rest and recuperation' camp for migrants 'en route to England'.
Spokesman Damien Defrance confirmed it will be open throughout the winter, until April 15th.
British politicians have already voiced outrage with UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage saying: 'What was the point of destroying the Jungle if only to build a new camp down the road?'
The opening of the Steenvoorde camp comes despite claims from French Immigration Minister Eric Besson that northern France ports would become 'watertight' to illegal migrants who currently use them as a springboard to get to Dover, where they will claim asylum or disappear into the black economy.
Mr Besson insisted that the closure of the Jungle was meant to send a strong signal to people-traffickers that northern France was no longer the last stop-over before England.
Despite this, all of the 276 migrants who were arrested in the Jungle have been released, and not a single people trafficker was caught.
'We are confident that many of these traffickers will now be operating in Steenvoorde,' said a local police spokesman.
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