United Kingdom asks France to creative solutions after the shipwreck in the Canal de la Mancha

The Government of the United Kingdom asked France this Saturday "new creative solutions" between the two countries to tackle migration by the Canal de la Manc

United Kingdom asks France to creative solutions after the shipwreck in the Canal de la Mancha

The Government of the United Kingdom asked France this Saturday "new creative solutions" between the two countries to tackle migration by the Canal de la Mancha, after death on Wednesday of 27 people in a shipwreck, including a pregnant woman and three children .

The Secretary of State for Customs and Borders, Damian Hinds, insisted, in statements to the BBC, in which a letter sent on Thursday by British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who caused indignation in Paris, had "Cooperative" tone and it was only intended to see that "we must deepen in the" bilateral collaboration.

The Government of Johnson is under pressure to stop the arrival of immigrants in an irregular situation from France to England, after they have not worked some of the measures he intended to introduce after the Brexit, such as sending asylum seekers to third countries to proceed Your requests. Seventeen men, seven women and three minors died in the tragedy of November 24, the worst in decades in the busy waters of the canal, which left two survivors, who are now questioned on Gaulus soil. The French Government has convened a meeting to address the matter on Sunday in Calais (France), to which representatives of Belgium, Germany, the European Commission and the Netherlands, have canceled the invitation to the United Kingdom in response to the Prime Minister's Misiva.

The controversial letter - which, among other things, asked for the return to France of immigrants from there intercepted in England - "totally recognizes what the French government has been doing and the fact that (immigration) is a common challenge" , according to Hind.

"But now, particularly after the horrible tragedy, we must go further, deepen our association, expand what we do, agree new creative solutions," he said. In the document, which was disseminated in social networks, Johnson lists the five bilateral measures he would like to see to "advance more and faster" in the migratory crisis. Among them, "joint patrols to prevent more boats from the French beaches", the deployment of technology and surveillance in the waters of each and an agreement with France on "returns" (of immigrants), as well as negotiations to establish a Pact of returns between the United Kingdom and the European Union, nonexistent after the British exit of the EU.

On the offer of sending British patrols to Water Galas, Hinds maintained that "nobody proposes violating sovereignty" but to highlight that "you have to do more" to monitor the French coast. "You can not simply say that it is difficult because there are hundreds of thousands of kilometers of coast, we have to do what is necessary to save human lives," he argued.

The Secretary of State did not specify how much the French authorities have already been paid from the 54 million pounds (64 million euros) promised by the United Kingdom in 2021-22 to assist in patrol work.

The challenging attitude of the Executive of London, frustrated by what he perceives as a French inoperative, has been criticized by the old British Labor Foreign Minister David Miliband, who considers that the situation as a whole reflects "what really means Brexit" .miliband , currently director of the US NGO International Rescue Committee, founded by Albert Einstein, said Johnson acted badly by writing a letter that can be interpreted as it is trying to "make Macron anger".

However, it also notes that the French Government "is equally wrong by rejecting the presence of a British representative at the meeting of tomorrow, since" obviously, the United Kingdom must be involved. " "In the end, we are going to have to make peace and try to fix what Brexit has created," he said. Miliband recalled that, before leaving the EU on January 31, 2020, London could resort to Community regulations Dublin III to return to immigrants to the first European country to which they had arrived before recurring on British soil, something that can no longer do By not having negotiated an alternative agreement.

This year, 1,281 attempts to cross the Canal to England have been registered, compared to 868 of 2020, when there were less by the pandemic, according to the maritime prefecture of Pas de Calais (France). The precarious vessels chartered by The organizers of these clandestine trips have transported, so far this year, 33,083 people, compared at 9,551, 2020, said the same source.

Date Of Update: 27 November 2021, 16:29