France's interior minister on Friday sought to defuse a row over the fate of migrants in Calais should Britain leave the EU, saying there was "no question" of letting them freely cross the Channel, reports RFI.
"If we open the border tomorrow, what will happen? The British, who run their own border, will block them and send them back," Bernard Cazeneuve said on BFMTV.
He said this would only increase the flow of people and "aggravate a humanitarian problem".
"We don't need statements that create buzz on this topic, we need long-term action."
The row broke out Thursday when France's outspoken economy minister Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of camps similar to the so-called Jungle shantytown at Calais springing up on Britain's southern coastline.
He told the Financial Times that a so-called Brexit would scupper a bilateral agreement that allows Britain to conduct border controls on the French side of the border.
"The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais," Macron told the newspaper.