Migrants in Calais seeking asylum in the UK should be allowed to lodge their claim in France, the president of the region has told the BBC. Xavier Bertrand said people living in the camp known as the Jungle should be able to apply at a ‘hotspot’ in France rather than waiting to reach Britain. UK officials currently check passports in France, stopping many from entering. The Home Office said ‘those in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter’. There are 9,000 people in the Jungle; most nights, many try to circumvent passport checks by hiding inside vehicles entering the port and the Channel Tunnel to get to Britain. Mr Bertrand hopes that amending the current agreement between France and the UK - called the Treaty of Le Touquet - will help to alleviate those problems. The treaty allows British immigration officials to check passports in Calais and their French counterparts to do the equivalent in Dover. The French government has repeatedly said that removing juxtaposed controls would not be in France’s interests.