They number some 200 families and growing, huddled around plastic tents that work as temporary shelter during summer but will do little to protect them from the frost of winter.

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Others have been using plastic sheets to make tents.

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Families sleep in large plastic greenhouses on farms, tents have been erected in gardens, and homes that were built to house a single family now shelter dozens of people.

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"It's essentially 40 tonnes of winterised tents - about 1, 300 tents in total, rolls of plastic sheeting, canvas tarpaulin, " a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

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There is a shortfall of 170, 000 high quality plastic sheets needed to improve protection from rain and snow in tents not designed to withstand the cold.

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They live in homemade dome tents built with sticks and hung with pieces of plastic or a cloth flapping in the wind, feeble shelter from scorching daytime temperatures that reach 120 degrees.

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The tents they live in are small, covered by tarps and plastic sheeting to keep water out.

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