The Minister of the Interior also rejected any “questioning” of the Touquet agreements, dating from 2004, which place the British border on the French side.
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Willingness to agree. A few days after the tragedy which claimed the lives of 27 migrants and the day after a meeting in Calais (Pas-de-Calais) with European ministers, Gérald Darmanin pleaded Monday, November 29 for an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom to stem the crossings of the Channel by illegal migrants. “It cannot be a simple agreement to readmit migrants to the territory” French, said the Minister of the Interior.
He was speaking at a press conference after an Internal Security Defense Council, chaired in the morning by Emmanuel Macron, devoted to the situation. “What we want, insisted Gérald Darmanin, it is a balanced agreement which offers real solutions including to the problems of France and Europe (…) We do not want a unilateral agreement. ” The minister announced that Prime Minister Jean Castex would write on Tuesday to his counterpart Boris Johnson to suggest that he work on the development of this agreement.
The government is “ready to resume discussions with Great Britain very quickly”, from the time “where there is no double talk” (private and public), said the minister, who had withdrawn from his counterpart Priti Patel on Sunday at the meeting in Calais. He was responding to a letter posted on Twitter by Boris Johnson asking Paris to take back migrants arriving from France in Britain. Gérald Darmanin also rejected any “questioning” the Touquet agreements, dating from 2004, which place the British border on the French side, as suggested by several opposition figures, recalling that this text only concerned legal immigration.
He warned the British against any attempt to release migrants who would arrive on their shores to sea, which would be “an unacceptable red line”. “We will never accept the practice of push-backs at sea”, he assured, because “the UK is not exempt from international law”. Finally, in addition to a plane from the European agency Frontex, two French helicopters will be assigned to coastal surveillance to prevent fatal crossings, he announced.