France’s hardline interior minister has warned that unless the UK agrees to open “legal admission channels” for those attempting to reach its shores, France will face off against Britain over the Channel migrant crisis.
The UK promised last year to provide £478 million over three years to assist the French in policing its borders. Although he stated that “not everything can be solved with additional funding,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced that 175 more police would be added to the 800 already present on the northern coast.
A “comprehensive” Europe-wide agreement with Britain on migration was also demanded by Retailleau, whereby the UK would accept legal migration routes in return for the return of illegal immigrants from Britain to the EU. In order to get it, he promised to “arm wrestle” with the EU on the matter.
He stated that “the relationship between France and the United Kingdom can no longer be reduced to sub-contracting out to France” security on the Channel border during a visit to Calais, in northern France, on Friday.
In the wake of Brexit, he continued, “there is a showdown to be had” on border security between the two nations.
During his first visit to the Calais coast since joining Michel Barnier’s right-wing government, he emphasized, “I hope it won’t come to that, but we have to change this relationship.”
The new government in France has pledged to reduce the number of migrants, and according to recent sources, it “absolutely” thinks that the absence of an EU-wide migration agreement with the UK following Brexit is a draw for illegal immigrants entering France from nations like Italy and Greece.
Retailleau went on to say that the current system had “completely run out of steam,” noting that 72 migrants have perished this year while attempting to enter England in makeshift boats, according to French authorities. He declared, “It’s a tragedy; it’s not bearable.”
During the Brexit negotiations from 2017 to 2021, Brussels turned down British demands for a UK-EU migration agreement that would permit Channel migrants to return to France.
Instead, it informed the UK that it would need to negotiate bilateral migrant return agreements with specific EU nations, including France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Since then, the European Commission has rejected calls for such a deal, but it is now under pressure after receiving recent letters on the subject from Germany and France, the two most powerful members of the EU.