By James Coomarasamy BBC Paris correspondent

The plan to close the Sangatte refugee camp has now moved into its practical phase.

The UK Home Secretary, David Blunkett, and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy have not yet named the date when the doors of the centre will finally shut - that is still dependent on new British immigration legislation being passed this autumn.

But the ministers have decided on 15 November as the cut-off point for new arrivals to the centre.

Sangatte refugees target the Channel Tunnel

What is happening now is that - with the help of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Red Cross - the French authorities are beginning to register all the immigrants who are currently staying in the camp.

They are being given identity badges and are filling in questionnaires designed to help determine where they are from and the legitimacy of their asylum claims.

Most of the 2,000 or so immigrants in Sangatte at the moment claim to be either Afghans or Iraqi Kurds. But officials suspect that at least some of them are not telling the truth.

Getting tough

Under a deal approved by the Afghan Government, France intends to offer 2,000 euros to each Afghan asylum seeker who agrees to go home voluntarily.

The asylum seekers hope to enter Britain

Britain and France have already decided to get tough on asylum claims from Afghanistan - even though human rights groups have questioned how safe it is for them to return.

Certainly, Afghans at the camp with whom we spoke showed no sign of accepting such a deal.

"We've paid $10,000 to get this far," one of them said, "why would we now take money to go all the way back?"

The main outstanding questions are:

• Will the naming of the date lead to a huge swell of numbers at the camp, which is already at capacity?

• What will happen to those immigrants who arrive at Sangatte after 15 November?

If the asylum seekers end up sleeping in the streets of Calais, the situation will have come full circle.

It was because this was happening that the French authorities set up the centre in the first place.

The UK and French governments' argument is as follows: the increased security around Calais and the recent dismantling of four people-smuggling gangs will send a strong signal to those who traffic in immigrants.

The new legislation being prepared in Britain will convince people that the UK is no longer a "soft touch".

That is the theory. But many people have doubts whether legislation or a padlock on a huge hangar in northern France will dissuade desperate people from coming halfway around the world to seek a better life.