France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has levelled another shot at the UK in the smoldering cross-Channel migrant row. Just hours before a scheduled meeting with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, in Paris, Darmanin blamed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for the crisis involving record numbers of illegal migrants attempting to enter British territory.
Weighing in on the current situation in the French port of Calais and in Dunkirk, on France’s northern coastline, where thousands of migrants are waiting in the hopes of entering the UK, Gérald Darmanin blamed Britain’s labour market for encouraging people to attempt the perilous crossing.
“Why do people go to Calais? To get into Britain. And why do they want to go the Britain? Because the British labour market functions, in many ways… thanks to a reserve army, as Karl Marx would say, of irregular people who work at low cost,” he said on CNews.
According to the French minister, the British government ought to change its laws to effectively discourage migrants from coming to the UK, saying: “If the British tightened up their legislation – they have started doing so but not gone far enough – people would no longer be in Calais or Dunkirk.”
Directly addressing the barrage of criticism that has been levelled by the British side, including PM Johnson, at French authorities for allegedly not doing enough to tackle the migrant issue, Darmanin added:
“We’re not taking lessons from the British … they must stop using us as a punching bag for their domestic politics. We are neither their collaborators nor their assistants. I would remind my British counterpart that the NGOs that are preventing the police and gendarmes from working (in Calais) are largely British NGOs with British citizens who are in French territory engaged in agitprop. The smugglers, who organise networks and exploit women and children … are also very often in Britain.”
France’s Interior Minister argued that it was Paris that was being negatively affected by British policy and urged against “inversing the roles”.
Simmering Migrant Row
The remarks came as an estimated 1,185 people crossed the English Channel by boat on 11 November - a record for crossings in a single day. Three people were also reported to have drowned during the course of the perilous journey.
A group of people, thought to be migrants wait on a Border Force rib to come ashore at Dover marina in Kent, England after a small boat incident in the English Channel, Tuesday Sept. 22, 2020.
© AP Photo / Gareth Fuller
Over 23,000 people are estimated to have crossed the Channel into the UK by boat so far this year – up from the 8,400 registered in 2020. The British government has been accusing France of failing to play its part in tackling the situation.
In October, the UK Home Secretary had said that unless Paris does more to stop the flow of refugees coming to Britain, London would withhold the £54 million ($72.4 million) it had promised to pay France as part of its agreement on tackling immigration. In 2019 Patel had vowed to make migrant crossings an “infrequent phenomenon” by spring 2020, then pledged in August last year to “make this route unviable”, yet the crisis continues to mar UK-French relations.
In this Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 file photo migrants gather near a fence in Calais, northern France.
© AP Photo / Matt Dunham
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has pledged to intercept 100 percent of Channel crossers once all the money had been handed over. MP Natalie Elphicke, representing Dover, was cited as emphasising that is was not credible that over 1,000 migrants could "hop onto small boats" and cross into the United Kingdom "without the French authorities noticing".
"The French need to get a grip and clamp down on the organised criminal gangs who are behind this problem," Ms. Elphicke was cited as saying.
PM Boris Johnson also called on the French to “control departures”, telling reporters at a vaccination centre in Old Bexley and Sidcup, south east London:
“We have a problem which is that they are coming from France and in the end, if the French authorities will not or cannot control those departures it is very difficult for us to turn them back at sea. We want to do that, we want to do that in a safe and humane way but it is very difficult.”
Johnson defended Priti Patel’s new borders bill, which could see people opting for an illegal route such as across the Channel have their asylum claim ruled as inadmissible, facing a jail sentence of up to four years. “It won't be the end of the story but it will make an important difference in the way that we are able to treat people who arrive here illegally,” said the PM.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover, England, Wednesday Aug. 12, 2020, by Border Force officers. (Kirsty O'Connor/PA via AP)
© AP Photo / Kirsty O'Connor
Ahead of her crisis talks on the migrant issue with Gerald Darmanin, Priti Patel said, according to a Home Office readout:
“I want to go further and faster, and that's why I will be holding talks with Gerald Darmanin this week… There is no single solution to this global crisis, but I am clear that through our New Plan for Immigration and our partnership with the French, we will together break this business model and stop vulnerable people putting themselves in the hands of vile criminals, and their lives at risk.”
Despite the spate of mutual recriminations, on Monday Boris Johnson’s spokesman underscored that the PM was convinced of the need to continue working with French counterparts to address the issue of Channel crossings.