On Monday, on the eve of an intergovernmental meeting in Calais, the United Kingdom called for a “legal immigration gate” to be opened and “responsible for it”. The UK was previously excluded from the meeting.
At the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron, the Council for the Defense of Migration convened Monday morning in Paris to “make a point”, Darmanin explained. “Today there are people who want to apply for asylum in England but have no way to cross the Channel,” he said.
On Sunday, four days after a deadly shipwreck that killed 27 refugees, participants in a European emergency meeting agreed to “improve cooperation with the UK” in response to the migration influx.
‘The UK is not responsible’
“Although the British are changing their legislation, they are not responsible,” Darmanin said. He also noted that Britain receives 30,000 asylum applications annually, compared to 150,000 in France. “I am certainly ready to hold talks with the British, provided they take place on the basis of understanding and natural sobriety,” the French minister added. He confirmed that he and his British colleague Priti Patel are in contact with each other “almost every day”.
Patel was initially invited to attend the emergency meeting, but her invitation was withdrawn after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested in a letter to President Macron that France take back any immigrants who had managed to reach the British island illegally. The fact that the letter was made public even before he reached Macron has been of particular concern to the French.
Read also.
EU countries hold an emergency meeting in Calais on the issue of migration: “Cooperation to combat people smugglers”
Boris Johnson appeals to France after the boat tragedy: ‘Return all migrants crossing the English Channel’
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