The mayor of Calais has branded Britain’s call for French border police to take tougher action against illegal migration as “pure hypocrisy” and urged the scrapping of an agreement between the two countries aimed at cracking down on Channel crossings.
Natacha Bouchart asked why France would have to spend millions of pounds to prevent small boats crossing the Channel just so migrants can work illegally with little chance of being deported if they land on British shores.
‘When the migrants arrive in Britain, they easily work without documents. The British government must stop denying it.
‘In reality they accept migrants passing through Calais, so they have to change the system. Britain should be holding people back, not us.
“We don’t think the French government and Europe are being tough enough on the British government on this,” she told BBC Radio 4.
Bouchart’s latest comments come weeks after she called for a “confrontation” between Britain and France to agree a new migration policy, while Didier Leschi, the French director general of the Bureau of Immigration, stated that migrants would leave Britain as an ‘El Dorado’ – a mythical land of wealth.
“The issue for England is to have an internal system that seems to be an El Dorado – and probably wrongly so – because it is a country where you can work very easily without having a residence permit,” he said in September.
The mayor of Calais has branded Britain’s call for French border police to take tougher action against illegal migration as “pure hypocrisy” and urged the scrapping of an agreement between the two countries aimed at cracking down on Channel crossings.
Migrants board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on Gravelines beach, near Dunkirk, northern France
A Border Force ship with around 100 migrants on board, including several children, arrives at the Port of Dover in Dover, England on October 31, 2024
Official figures show that more than 800 migrants crossed the English Channel last week alone, as Sir Keir Starmer declared his government will do ‘everything we can’ to stem the flow of migrants into Britain.
Speaking to reporters on his way to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this week, Sir Keir said: ‘I don’t think this is an area where we should be doing just one thing. We must do everything we can.
‘It is absolutely clear to me that taking down the gangs is the most effective way to stop the boats crossing the Channel.
‘People make a lot of money for the trips people make through obviously different countries to the north coast of France.
“Intercepting and eliminating these gangs is extremely important and breaking the gangs that run them will be one of the biggest obstacles.”
Earlier this month the Prime Minister said people smugglers should be treated as ‘terrorists’ as part of efforts to crack down on Channel crossings.
Meanwhile, France and Germany last month called on Britain to enter into talks on a Europe-wide agreement on migration and asylum, hoping talks with a Labor government led by Sir Keir Starmer could be “more constructive”.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and former French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Brexit had seriously affected “the coherence of migration policy” and that the European Commission should do so to ‘quickly’ present a ‘draft negotiating mandate’ for talks with Britain on asylum and migration.
Migration is a hot topic in the EU, with many member states seeing a significant increase in support for far-right parties, largely due to lax migration laws that have seen millions of migrants flock to Western Europe.
France strengthened its position on November 1 borders six of the neighboring Schengen countries – namely Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland – with enhanced controls.
The checks were applied to travelers entering France by land, sea and air routes from all six countries and will last until April 1, 2025 – but authorities have said they could be extended further.
A statement from the French government said the controls had been introduced due to “serious threats to public order, public order and internal security caused by high-level terrorist activities.” individuals’.
It is the first time that France has introduced such controls since the Covid-19 pandemic. Migrants and unauthorized travelers may be turned back at the border and suspects of criminal activity may be arrested.
Keir Starmer has insisted he is ‘not relaxed’ about net migration levels – which are expected to fall but will remain at an all-time high of 315,000 per year in the medium term
Shortly after setting out on the perilous journey across the Channel, a group of migrants are spotted
British Border Police officers escort migrants to the Dover Docks in Kent, United Kingdom
Britain saw the biggest increase in legal immigration of any major country last year, according to a report.
The OECD put Britain at the top of the international rankings after long-term inflows rose by almost 53 percent to a record 750,000.
That was a bigger increase than any other European state, and a more significant jump than the 13.4 percent in the US.
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is ‘not relaxed’ about net migration levels – which are expected to fall but will remain at an all-time high of 315,000 per year in the medium term.
The latest report ignores Ukrainians seeking asylum amid the fallout from the Russian invasion.
Overall, OECD countries saw a total inflow of more than 6.5 million people in 2023, an increase of 10 percent compared to the previous year and 28 percent compared to 2019.
‘After an unprecedented increase in 2023, the Britain rose to second place with a record 750,000 new migrants (250,000 more than in 2022, +52 percent), the report said.
Germany, which has been the second OECD destination since 2012, fell to third despite a 4 percent increase and almost 700,000 new permanent entries.
‘Canada followed with 470,000 new permanent migrants (+7.8 percent), and Spain recorded an increase of 12 percent to 360,000.’
The report pointed out that Great Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Finland, JapanKorea, Luxembourg and Switzerland all recorded record immigration in 2023.
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Overall, OECD countries saw a total inflow of more than 6.5 million people in 2023, an increase of 10 percent compared to the previous year and 28 percent compared to 2019
In September, Sir Keir set out measures to reduce over-reliance on migrant workers and boost training in Britain to fill vacancies.
He announced an effort to link visa policy to skills needs so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or addressing workforce issues.
The Migration Advisory Committee has been asked to highlight the key sectors where labor market failures have led to a boom in recruitment abroad, and to provide ministers with an annual assessment.
The government is also reviewing the rules around migrant sponsorship to ensure that employers found to be guilty of flouting labor laws are not allowed to hire staff from abroad.
The Prime Minister said at the time: ‘It is the policy of this Government to reduce both net migration and our economic dependence on it.
“I have never thought that we should be relaxed about importing labor into certain sectors, when there are millions of young people, ambitious and very talented, who desperately want to work and contribute.”