UK Home Secretary Priti Patel insists she will hold negotiations with her European counterparts over the Channel migrant crisis after she was barred from a Sunday meeting in Calais.
On Sunday, she held phone talks with Dutch Migration Minister Ankie Broekers-Knol, saying that London and Amsterdam have agreed to work together on the issue.
"They agreed that the tragic incidents of last week demonstrate the need for European partners to work together. It was clear that shared problems needed shared solutions... The home secretary expressed that it was unfortunate that she wouldn't be present at the meeting of interior ministers in Calais to discuss the issue", the Home Office said in a statement.
Sunday's meeting was called days after an inflatable dinghy with migrants capsized off Calais in the English Channel on 24 November, killing 27 people. France and Britain have since blamed each other for the tragic incident.
Patel's invitation to the meeting in France, where she was expected to discuss the migrant crisis with European interior ministers, was cancelled last week after Boris Johnson shared an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron. In the letter, the British prime minister offered France to establish reciprocal maritime patrols in each other's waters, as well as joint patrols to prevent channel crossings. He also proposed a bilateral readmission agreement that would allow illegal migrants who cross the English Channel to be returned to France.
Paris, however, blasted Johnson for making the letter public and said it was "formally poor and its content inappropriate". According to the French authorities, "there is bad immigration management" in Britain.