A group of refugees from the closed Sangatte camp in France have been put up at a hotel in Sussex while they find work.

About 40 people from the former Red Cross camp are being housed at the Holiday Inn at Gatwick for a maximum of three months.

They are among 1,200 Iraqis and Afghans Home Secretary David Blunkett agreed to take in to the UK on four-year work visas rather than as asylum seekers.

The group at Gatwick will be supported by the Government until its members find work, either in Sussex or elsewhere in the country.

On Saturday, two buses took the final group of refugees at Sangatte, mostly Iraqi Kurds, from the camp to England under a deal struck between the British and French governments to shut the centre.

Sangatte became notorious after asylum seekers used it as a base from which to launch illegal efforts to reach the UK, often via the Channel Tunnel.

The Home Office said accommodating the refugees had only been possible as a result of the unique deal struck with the French, which includes tough new UK immigration controls on the French side of the Channel to prevent illegal immigrants getting to the UK.

Crawley's Labour MP Laura Moffatt, who was told of the group's arrival at Gatwick by the Home Office on Friday, welcomed them to the county and hoped they would add to the economy of the UK.

She said: "They are very welcome in my constituency as long as they behave and understand that this is a great advantage that has been offered. I look forward to them making a living.

"I completely and utterly approve of the closure of Sangatte and the arrangement they came to. To achieve that, the Home Office should be very pleased with itself. It means a lot of people will not illegally enter the UK through that route.

"People from Afghanistan and Iraq have a genuine need to be here. Many of them will start work long before the three-month period."

The Iraqi Kurds are mainly men with skills, and include builders and mechanics.

Among the Afghans are families who already have relatives in the UK and are not considered asylum seekers by the Home Office, which is working with local authorities to find them permanent accommodation.

A spokesman said: "The majority of them have been really positive. They want to come here to work and are really eager to work."

There is now vastly improved security at Calais and Frethun. Freight searching in Calais will soon be 100 per cent and hi-tech detection equipment is being deployed along the north European coast.

The refugees' skills are being identified and the Home Office said it was already pursuing offers from potential employers.

Labour councillor Douglas Murdoch, leader of Crawley Borough Council, said: "The hotel industry is very under-utilised at this time of year.

"The Holiday Inn is quite happy to take them. They are causing no problem. I think it is a very Christmassy act."

Sussex police at Gatwick have been told they are staying at the hotel.

Inspector Paul Drake said: "We are not expecting any problems.

"We are not putting any special measures in place. We are aware we might see some of them at terminals and walking around the airport."

Brighton and Hove was not put forward as a base for short-term asylum seekers, despite unfounded rumours the Ocean Hotel in Saltdean would take them in.

But the Adelphi Hotel in Hastings was selected as a temporary home for 60 asylum seekers when the closure of Sangatte was announced.