France warns UK targets on migrant crossings
would be ‘serious loss of trust’
The French interior minister and his British
counterpart, Priti Patel, will hold ‘clarification’ talks on Wednesday.
BY CLEA
CAULCUTT
September
7, 2021 4:40 pm
PARIS – The
French interior ministry said a mooted decision in the U.K. to pay France only
if more migrants are stopped from crossing the Channel would represent “a grave
loss of trust” between the two countries.
“The
conditions of the funding were negotiated in detail with the British and it was
never question of conditioning the money to specific targets,” it said in a
statement. “That approach would translate into a serious loss of trust in our
cooperation.”
British
Home Secretary Priti Patel reportedly told MPs she would cut funding for French
operations if more migrants weren’t stopped.
“We’ve not
given them a penny of the money so far,” The Times quoted her saying, “and
France is going to have to get its act together if it wants to see the cash.
It’s payment by results, and we’ve not yet seen those results. The money is
conditional.”
Two months
ago, the U.K. agreed to give France €62.7 million towards surveillance
operations on the French coast between Dieppe and Calais.
That pledge
appears to be under considerable strain after a record number of migrants are
believed to have crossed the Channel into the U.K. in a single day. Reports say
800 to 1,000 people arrived on Monday.
Patel is
said to be prepared to pull the plug on the deal unless three in four crossings
are stopped by the end of the month. France has stopped half the small boats
trying to cross the Channel since the beginning of the year, according to the
interior ministry.
Patel and
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin will hold talks in the margins of a G7
meeting on Wednesday. France hopes these will provide “a clarification of the
terms of the cooperation.”
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