French minister seeks to calm rhetoric over Calais migrant camp
After Emmanuel Marcon, the French Economy Minister, told the Financial Times that if Britain were to leave the EU that the migrants at Calais will move into the UK, his fellow cabinet member, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has sought to calm the current rhetoric surrounding the fate of the migrant camp in Calais. Eurosceptics in Britain claimed Marcon's statements illustrated the scare-tactics being employed by some in Europe, saying that such comments strengthen the case to leave the union, rather than to remain in it.

French interior minister seeks to calm Brexit row over Calais

PARIS, March 4 (Reuters) - French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday sought to smooth over controversial comments made by a fellow cabinet member over how thousands of migrants waiting in France could flood into Britain if it left the European Union.

Emmanuel Macron, an outspoken economy minister who sometimes irritates cabinet colleagues by speaking on matters outside his brief, told the Financial Times on Thursday that "the day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais".

The comments were not contradicted by President Francois Hollande when he was asked about them during an Anglo-French security summit the same day.

They were also seized upon by UK eurosceptics as being a coordinated scare tactic on behalf of the "In" camp's campaign for Britain's upcoming EU membership referendum.

"On this subject, we don't need declarations that create a buzz," Cazeneuve said on French radio on Friday.

"Because if we open the border tomorrow, what will happen? The British control their own borders and can block the arrival of migrants into Britain. They would then be sent back to France ... which would worsen the humanitarian crisis," he said.