Published in : 10/10/2021 – 09:40

On Saturday, October 9, the French Interior Minister called for negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the migration issue, believing that an agreement should be reached to combat irregular immigration.

“We need to negotiate a treaty, since Mr. [Michel] Barnier did not do it when he negotiated Brexit, which unites us on migration issues, “said Gérald Darmanin during a trip to Loon-Plage (Nord) and then to Marck (Pas-de-Calais), where migrants try to cross the Channel. from La Mancha every day to arrive in England.

“We are in favor of a European agreement that solves the problem of asylum applications, that solves the problem of deportations, that solves the problem of family reunification,” he explained.

“I told the British government and we are awaiting their response to start these discussions,” he added. The minister specified that at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, France would support this project when it holds the biannual presidency of the European Union in January.

“We have a tunnel together, we have a common sea, and then we have been friends for a long time,” he pleaded.

Friction subject

The issue of migrants between Paris and London has been governed for almost twenty years by the Touquet agreements, which aim to hinder irregular immigration to Britain by tightening controls on leaving France.

Clandestine crossings of migrants regularly cause friction between London and Paris, which has recently crystallized into the financial issue.

“Government [britannique] He has not paid for the moment what he promised us, “said Gérald Darmanin on Saturday.” We call on the British to keep their promise of financing, since we are supporting the border, “he said.

The UK pledged at the end of July to pay France 62.7 million euros in 2021-2022 to finance the strengthening of French law enforcement on the coasts.

However, according to the British press, the British Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, had threatened in early September not to pay this sum, given the record of arrivals of migrants who crossed the English Channel illegally.

France is not the “vassal” of Great Britain

“The 63 million mentioned by the British government, at the moment we have not seen the financial color. However, gendarmes have also been hired, technological means have been bought to maintain this border,” explained Gérald Darmanin.

He claimed that France was “an ally of Great Britain”, but “not its vassal”. “We are here to maintain a border, it is true. But we are going to do it in complementarity [avec Londres]”he added.

Since the end of 2018, illegal Canal crossings by migrants seeking to reach the UK have increased despite repeated warnings from authorities highlighting the danger associated with the density of traffic, strong currents and low temperatures. of the water.

More than 15,000 attempts this year

According to the maritime prefect, Philippe Dutrieux, some 15,400 migrants attempted the crossing between the 1^{it is} January and August 31, of which 3,500 were “recovered in difficulty” in the strait and returned to the French coast. In 2020, crossings and attempted crossings affected some 9,500 people, compared to 2,300 in 2019 and 600 in 2018.

However, according to Gérald Darmanin, arrests of illegal vessels have increased by 15 points in the last three months, from “50% to 65% of the vessels detained”. “We must be able to reach almost 100%, if we put all these means and if our British friends continue to help us as they do,” he said.

Gérald Darmanin also claimed to have received a guarantee from the director of the European border surveillance agency Frontex that the latter would be “at the meeting [d’ici à] end of the year “to help monitor the area, including through aerial surveillance.

With AFP