FREJUS, France More than 900 Kurdish migrants who suffered a week-long ordeal in the hold of a clapped-out cargo ship were transferred to a temporary holding center on the French Riviera Sunday, while the crew who ran them aground and abandoned them were still on the run, according to AFP.

Red Cross officials said that a total of 918 Kurds were transferred overnight from a military base, where they were fed Saturday after being rescued from the stricken ship, to a disused military warehouse in Frejus, southern France.

All the migrants, who included 300 children under 10 and 200 elderly people, were to be given medical examinations from 9:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) apart from some 16 who had already been sent to hospital suffering from the effects of the voyage, Red Cross officials said.

"We have put in place, along with the public health authorities, a program of systematic medical checks with pediatricians and general practitioners in order to build up a complete picture of their state of health," Claude Oliver Martin, the Red Cross coordinator in Frejus, told AFP.

Immigration officials and border police were to begin interviewing the families early Sunday at which point they were expected to make claims for political asylum, officials at the local governor's office said.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the crew, which investigators believe made off in a smaller boat after running the 880-ton East Sea, a Cambodian-registered cargo vessel owned by a Syrian.

The grounding happened at around 4:00 am Saturday just off the beach at the upmarket French Riviera resort of Boulouris, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Cannes.

The Kurds, who said they had made a two-month journey from their homes in Iraq and Turkey, remained trapped for several hours until some of them managed to swim to the rocky beach and alert local residents.

Rescuers found the rest trapped in "deplorable" conditions in the leaking, overcrowded boat, and it soon became clear that France was dealing with its biggest ever human-trafficking drama as hundreds of dehydrated, confused migrants were brought ashore.

How close the scandal came to turning into a tragedy became clear early Sunday, when the rusting hulk of the East Sea sank in 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) of water after being towed free of the sandbank.

"We paid 200 dollars to get on the boat, then 2,000 dollars once we were on board. They gave us very little water or food. We were ripped off," said one passenger, who said he was from southern Iraq.

"We didn't know how long we were aboard. It was dark and we were hungry. Inside it was terrible, terrible... But now we are in France, we are happy," said another.

Employment Minister Elizabeth Guigou said in Frejus, where on Saturday she met the shipwreck victims turned illegal immigrants, that France's law would be respected and that their future would be judged on a case by case basis.

"First we have to give them good humanitarian assistance," Guigou said. "They left because they were scared. They didn't know which European country they would land in."

But when pity for their initial plight fades the migrants might find a cold welcome on the Riviera. Concern over immigration is already high in the area, and right-wing politicians were quick to call for the Kurds to be expelled.

Far-right leader Jean-Marie le Pen denounced what he said was "without doubt a criminal action..., a new step in the invasion of France and Europe by massive immigration from the Third World."

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants enter France each year, many of them heading on towards Britain. Unofficial figures suggest that between 100,000 and 200,000 illegal immigrants live permanently in France, AFP said.