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An official in Paris has admitted the authorities are struggling to find a permanent solution to hundreds of desperate refugees who have set up a camp in the city after failing to cross from Calais to the UK.

The Telegraph reports that around 500 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan are camping in central Paris, after UK border officers turned them back from the French port.

Some of the migrants say they made their way to Paris because it is becoming hard to find food at Calais.

The migrants have tents and have set up two camps in Paris – one on the banks of the Seine near Austerlitz railway station and the other near the Eurostar terminal at the Gare du Nord, which links Paris with the UK via the Eurostar terminal at Ashford in Kent and the second Eurostar terminal at King’s Cross/St Pancras in central London.

Officials in Paris say that tents on the sites started appearing a year ago – but in the last few weeks numbers have rapidly increased.

In the last few weeks, an estimated 11,000 migrants have arrived in Europe via Catania in Italy and the Greek island of Rhodes, after being rescued from sinking vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

Head of the Emmaus Solidarité charity – which helps the migrants in Paris –
Bruno Morel said:

“These camps are growing. We can provide initial humanitarian relief, but we need solutions for housing.”

An estimated 2,000 migrants are waiting at the French port of Calais in the hope of crossing to the UK.

The pressure on housing and services caused by increased migration to the UK has been a central theme of the General Election debate – it is estimated that the population in London grows by 100,000 a year as a result of overall migration, including EU migration, asylum seekers and migrants from outside EU countries.

Some of the migrants at Calais are Christians fleeing conflicts in their home countries hoping to come to the UK to settle.

The Telegraph reports that Henry John, 45 – a farmer from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan – made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea after the Sudanese government reportedly dropped cluster bombs on civilian areas in February and March and his house was flattened by a bomb.

He has been in Paris for three weeks after turning back from Calais because of the number of migrants there and pressure on resources. Mr John speaks English but no French and is currently living in a tent under Charles de Gaulle bridge. His wife and three children are in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, because they were unable to walk the 13 hours through the Sahara desert to reach a boat to Italy. He does not know what has happened to his family after he arrived in Italy and took a train to France.

Also from the Nuba Mountains is another farmer, who is Muslim – 36-year-old Bashir Suleiman. He returned from Calais to Paris because of the conditions at the port.

“It's hard to cross the border and there are too many people in Calais,” he said.

“It's better here – they give us food and a doctor comes around every two days. Many people here have come back from Calais,“ he added.

“As long as Bashir is in power, Sudan will go down,” Mr Suleiman told reporters. “He is a war criminal. Every day his soldiers are killing Nuba people.”

President Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide relating to the Darfur conflict.

New migrants to the EU are allowed to travel freely once they arrive –
border controls have been abolished under the Schengen agreement, which allows travel between most EU countries without having to produce a passport or visa.

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