Johnson ‘not serious’ on solving Channel crossings, says Macron

 Johnson ‘not serious’ on solving Channel crossings, says Macron

 

‘You don’t communicate via tweets and open letters,’ French President Emmanuel Macron says.

 

BY CLEA CAULCUTT AND JULES DARMANIN

November 26, 2021 8:48 am

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-uninvites-uk-priti-patel-migrant-meeting/

 

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Boris Johnson's methods were not "serious" after the British Prime Minister tweeted a letter calling on the French President to strike a deal with the U.K. on migrants making dangerous English Channel crossings.

 

"I am surprised by the methods when they are not serious," Macron said during a visit to Rome. "We do not communicate from one leader to another on these issues by tweets and letters that we make public. We are not whistleblowers."

 

Earlier on Friday France uninvited U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel from a ministerial meeting initially planned for Sunday on the issue.

 

"Ministers will work seriously to solve a serious issue with serious people... We will see later with the British how to act efficiently if they decide to be serious," Macron added.

 

A meeting scheduled for Friday at technical level with officials from the British Home Office has been maintained, according to the French interior ministry.

 

In his letter, published late Thursday and also copied to European Council President Charles Michel, Boris Johnson urged more cooperation with Paris and Brussels on the return of migrants who make the sea journey to England.

 

Pending such an agreement, Johnson called on Macron to strike a bilateral readmissions deal “to allow all illegal migrants who cross the Channel to be returned.”

 

The French government hit back in the early hours of Friday.

 

"We find the open letter from the British prime minister unacceptable ... Thus, Priti Patel is not invited anymore to the ministers' meeting," a French interior ministry official had earlier told POLITICO.

 

With Patel out of the picture, interior ministers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are set to meet Sunday with representatives from the European Commission in the French port city of Calais to discuss how to curb dangerous crossings of the Channel by migrants who want to reach the U.K., after 27 people drowned in the sinking of a dinghy Wednesday night. Patel had been slated to attend the meeting.

 

French police are facing unprecedented challenges to prevent crossings as smugglers become more organized. Close to 26,000 migrants have reached the U.K. by small boats this year, according to the British Home Office.

 

“I don’t think there is anything inflammatory to ask for close co-operation with our nearest neighbors,” U.K. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. “The proposal was made in good faith. I can assure our French friends of that and I hope that they will reconsider meeting up to discuss it.”

 

Johnson's letter is a "disappointment," and making it public makes it "worse," Darmanin told Patel in a message, according to AFP.

 

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said in an interview Friday morning with BFMTV the letter was "lacking on substance and inappropriate on form." Johnson's proposed bilateral deal is "obviously not what we need to solve this issue," he ad