An MEP who had expressed fears about a planned welfare centre for migrants in Calais is now backing the facility.  Richard Ashworth, Conservative South East MEP, expressed his support after visiting the port and putting questions to the towns mayor on Tuesday.  The mayor of Calais intends to open the centre, which does not have sleeping facilities, later this year.  Mr Ashworth had previously said he was concerned the centre would encourage immigrants to try to enter the UK.  It is estimated there are between 300 and 1,000 migrants sleeping rough in and around the town every night, five years after the Sangatte refugee camp closed.   The new centre has been dubbed Sangatte 2″ but the Calais mayor says it will be different because it lacks sleeping facilities and will provide only food, showers and information.  The mayors office wants the current welfare sites that are spread out around Calais to be brought together in one place, the mayors spokesman Denis Duvot has said.   When asked if the plan got his support, Mr Ashworth said: Yes I think it does because I think that the authorities in Calais find themselves in a totally impossible situation.  They didnt ask to have these people here.    (The obvious solution is to round them up and deport them but presumably placing them near a convenient entry point into Britain is more convenient and cheaper to France)  Dover Labour councillor Ben Barno said the new centre would give a modicum of human dignity to rough sleepers in Calais.   Mr Barno, who is involved in assisting migrants in Calais, said: I think we owe it to them and should not get terribly concerned about the centre being a replacement for Sangatte.