The controversial Sangatte refugee camp near the French end of the Channel Tunnel should be closed by next March at the latest, Britain and France agreed yesterday.
After months of wrangling, a deal at talks in Paris set the timetable for the centre to shut down - subject to the introduction of sweeping new UK laws designed to discourage illegal asylum seekers.
Britain's Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett and his French counterpart Mr Nicolas Sarkozy agreed that the camp, housing about 1,500 would-be asylum seekers, would close some time in the last quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
The exact timetable, explained Mr Blunkett after the meeting, will depend on the completion of the new Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill.
As soon as it has gone through Parliament and received Royal Assent, France will be ready to remove the Sangatte centre, from where hundreds of asylum seekers have been trying to reach Britain illegally aboard trains through the Channel Tunnel.
Mr Blunkett said he had already made provision for his new bill to be speeded up, short-cutting the usual procedures, so that it could be in place by mid-October.
Meanwhile, a new joint Anglo-French immigration squad is to be set up to help police the French Channel Tunnel entrance to weed out illegal asylum seekers.
Shadow home secretary Mr Oliver Letwin said Mr Blunkett should have restored an earlier bilateral agreement between the UK and France, under which asylum-seekers coming illegally from France could immediately be returned.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mr Simon Hughes said: "Whilst the timeframe for the closure of the Sangatte camp seems realistic, many questions remain unanswered.
"Afghans currently living in the camp may be able to return home, but the Kurds in Sangatte will not be able to return to Iraq for some considerable time.
"The fundamental question of how to deal fairly and efficiently with asylum seekers, wherever they arrive in Europe, has still not been properly addressed.
"Both governments must ensure that the closure of the camp forms the basis of a new pan-EU immigration policy."