France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany pledge at the Calais summit to fight the mafias that traffic in people
United, coordinated and mobilized in the face of the migratory drama in the English Channel. Interior officials from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany pledged this Sunday in Calais (northeast France) to fight “even more intensely” against human trafficking networks after the death of 27 migrants last Wednesday in a shipwreck when they tried to reach the British shores.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that from 1 December a plane from the European agency Frontex will fly over the English Channel “day and night” to help better detect and intercept illegal sea crossings to the United Kingdom. .
The meeting in Calais was also attended by the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, and the heads of Europol and the European border agency Frontex. Curiously, the UK, the final destination of clandestine migrants crossing the English Channel, did not attend the meeting. Darmanin on Friday canceled the invitation to his British counterpart, Priti Patel, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday asked Paris in a letter posted on social media to take care of migrants smuggling into the UK from France.
The Elysee felt fatal that Johnson posted on Twitter the letter addressed to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, with several proposals to tackle the migration crisis, instead of resorting to the usual diplomatic channels. The French president denounced the lack of seriousness of the British ‘premier’ when dealing with the migration crisis.
‘Pro-European’ meeting
Darmanin assured that the Calais meeting “was not anti-English, but pro-European.” “Our will is to work with Great Britain, but this work can only be done seriously and without being hostage to English politics,” added the French Interior Minister. For his part, Patel announced on Twitter that he will hold emergency meetings with his European counterparts this week, without specifying the date or his interlocutors. London accuses the EU, and especially the French, of not doing enough to curb the arrival of illegal migrants to the UK via the English Channel.
The French Interior Minister urged the United Kingdom to “assume its responsibilities” and “limit the economic attractiveness of its territory.” According to Paris, if immigrants risk their lives it is because “they are attracted to England, in particular by the labor market, which means that, without papers, they can work.”
Similarly, Darmanin also called on London to open legal avenues for asylum seekers in their home countries, so that they do not have to resort to illegal immigration. He recalled that, since January 1, France has received 150,000 asylum requests, compared to 30,000 from the United Kingdom.
Topics
Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Europol, European Union (EU), Germany, Belgium, Calais, English Channel, Holland, London, Paris, United Kingdom, Brexit, Refugee Drama, Migrants, Refugees
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