A furious Calais immigration chief has offered to pay for ferry tickets for migrants to come to Kent - after troubles flared and dozens were injured in French camps.

He has even called for the border to be moved to Dover - so Britain can see what enormous pressure the French area faces.

The stand-off over migrant camps in Calais appears to have reached crisis point - with the port's immigration chief now offering to give migrants free travel to the UK in order to ease the pressure on France.

His comments come as more than 50 people were injured when violence broke out between rival groups from Eritrea and Sudan.

Calais' Deputy Mayor Philippe Mignonet said there were between 1,000 and 1,200 migrants in the port area, with the reputation of Calais affected as media report on clashes.

He said the migrants' wish was not to stay in France - they wanted to live in England.

He added: "The migrants want to go to England because they are told by the media when they get to England they will get facilities and, quite readily, will be able to get paperwork for their family to join them."

He claimed Britain didn't have the strict restrictions on employing foreign workers, which made the country more attractive.

He called for talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, and suggested moving the border to Dover for a time, so Britain could experience the aggravation suffered by the northern French town.

Mr Mignonet told a national paper: "‘What we want to do is buy the migrants ferry tickets to Britain and let them deal with the problem.

"We want the border to be moved from Calais to Dover and Folkestone for one month so Britain understands how difficult the problem is."

French officials this week cancelled orders for the destruction of a makeshift camp in Calais containing hundreds of would-be illegal migrants to the UK.

The change of plan followed violent clashes between rival gangs of illegals.

Around 150 Somalians and Eritreans fought each other on Sunday night over territory in the camp, dubbed Jungle 2.

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