France wants to work with UK on migration but
won’t be ‘hostage’ to British politics
Paris pledges progress in fight against human
traffickers.
BY PIETRO
LOMBARDI
November
28, 2021 8:14 pm
France
wants to work with its “British friends” to counter human trafficking across
the English Channel but won’t be held hostage by U.K. domestic politics,
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Sunday after an emergency meeting with
colleagues from countries along the Channel’s continental shore.
Darmanin
told a news conference he hoped President Emmanuel Macron will be able to
announce progress soon on “a new framework of cooperation” with the U.K. and
plans to fight human traffickers, who the minister blamed for the drowning
Wednesday of 27 migrants when their England-bound boat sank near the French
port of Calais.
He expessed
hope an intensification of efforts against people traffickers would result from
the meeting in Calais of interior ministers from France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Germany, as well as officials from Frontex, Europol and the
European Commission. Darmanin said the EU border agency Frontex would supply a
plane to monitor the Channel “night and day” from December 1.
Notably
absent from Sunday’s talks was the U.K. due to a diplomatic row between London
and Paris. On Friday, France uninvited U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel after
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted a letter to Macron urging France to accept
returned migrants as part of a wider agreement on containing cross-Channel
migration flows.
Darmanin
complained of a gap between “serious” technical talks with the British and
public grandstanding for domestic audiences. “This wasn’t a serious way of
working,” he said. “Unfortunate public declarations don’t facilitate our
discussions … we cannot talk government-to-government through Twitter.”
The Calais
meeting was “not anti-British” but rather “pro-European,” Darmanin said, adding
that dialogue between Paris and London is still open. However, he called on the
U.K. to revise its asylum policies and take steps to make working in Britain
harder for migrants who arrive illegally.
“We want to
work with our British friends … but that work has to be serious and not be held
hostage by domestic politics,” the minister insisted.
Patel spoke
on Sunday morning with her Dutch counterpart about the deadly Channel
crossings, the U.K. Home Office said.
“The Home
Secretary expressed that it was unfortunate that she wouldn’t be present at
today’s meeting of interior ministers in Calais to discuss this issue,” the
statement read.
Patel
tweeted on Sunday that she will “be holding urgent talks with my European
counterparts this week to prevent further tragedies in the Channel.” She to called
for more international cooperation to tackle the issue.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário