(Paris) France wants an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on illegal immigration in the Channel, after the shipwreck which cost the lives of 27 migrants, announced Monday the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin .
We need a “European Union and Great Britain agreement” because “it cannot be a simple agreement for the readmission of migrants on French territory”, declared Mr. Darmanin to the press, firmly rejecting the proposal of British Prime Minister Boris. Johnson.
“What we want”, he insisted, “is a balanced agreement which offers real solutions including to the problems of France and Europe. […] We do not want a unilateral agreement ”.
Gérald Darmanin announced that Prime Minister Jean Castex would write to his counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday to suggest that he work on the development of this agreement.
He also assured that there would be “no questioning” of the Touquet agreements (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 also warned the British against any attempt to release migrants who would arrive on their coasts to sea, which would be “an unacceptable red line”. “We will never accept the practice of push-backs at sea”, he assured, because “the United Kingdom is not exempt from international law”.
Earlier Monday morning, Gérald Darmanin called on the United Kingdom to open “legal access to immigration” and to take “its responsibilities”.
Stressing the need to fight against smugglers, the Minister announced the doubling of the staff of the Central Office dedicated to the fight against illegal immigration.
8700 euros
The announcements come days after the worst tragedy in the Channel on Wednesday, in which at least 27 people died.
Meeting on Sunday in Calais (northern France) at the invitation of Paris, the participants in an emergency European meeting agreed to “improve joint cooperation with the United Kingdom” in the face of migratory trafficking.
The ministers or officials responsible for French, German, Dutch and Belgian immigration, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and the directors of the European criminal police agencies Europol and the Frontex borders were brought together, in the absence of the British, against a background of persistent tensions between London and Paris.
On board fragile boats, migrants now try to reach the English coast almost daily.
The issue of crossings, a regular subject of bilateral tensions, is a delicate one for the British Conservative government, which has made the fight against immigration its hobbyhorse in the wake of Brexit.
The tone rose again last week between Paris and London, after France’s cancellation of British participation in the crisis meeting on migrants. A response after Boris Johnson had published a letter to the French president on social networks, in which he asked his counterpart to take back the immigrants arriving in Britain in the aftermath of the tragedy in the Channel.
Two people escaped from this shipwreck on Wednesday, including an Iraqi, whose journey, to illustrate the long journey of migrants, was detailed by the central director of the border police, Fernand Gontier.
This man had left Damascus (Syria) by a flight with “220 other Iraqis”. He had arrived “in Belarus, had crossed the border with Poland” then, had stopped in “Germany where he lodged an asylum application”. He then traveled “by road to France”, to “Dunkirk, where he was able to embark on this boat which failed”. In all, said Mr. Gontier, this trip cost him “8,700 euros”. He had been in France for “six days”.
As of November 20, 31,500 migrants had left the coast since the start of the year and 7,800 had been rescued. Before Wednesday’s sinking, the human toll since January had risen to three dead and four missing.