It’s revenge for Brexit! Macron refusing to tackle migrant traffickers as showdown looms

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    Ministers feel bleak about the prospects of tougher action by France and do not think the French will give them anything. According to the source Macron’s strategy will only get worse ahead of a presidential run-in.

    They told the Times: “With the elections coming up, they think it will only get worse. They think it’s part of Macron’s Brexit punishment strategy.”

    The claims come as an informant inside a squalid camp in Dunkirk told MailOnline: “The French know conditions are appalling. They are deliberately creating a hostile environment so migrants want to leave and get on Channel boats.

    “It has become a push factor for reaching Britain along with dreams of hotels and benefits which are not given by the French.”

    Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected this week to call on her French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, to ramp up France’s respone to the migrant crisis by intercepting every boat attempting to cross the Channel.

    macron

    Emmanuel Macron’s bitterness over Brexit is ‘hampering efforts to tackle migrant traffickers’ (Image: Zabulon Laurent/ABACA/PA Images)

    Migrants

    Last Thursday saw 1,185 migrants reach UK shores (Image: NurPhoto/PA Images)

    Last Thursday saw a record 1,185 migrants reach UK shores with the total number of migrants making the perilous 22-mile journey so far this year standing at more than 23,500, which is almost three times the 8,417 who made the same trip last year.

    On Thursday, France stopped just 99 migrants out of the 1,284 trying to make it across the Channel in spite of a French pledge to stop 100 percent of crossings.

    Dan O’Mahoney, the Channel threat commander, said the smugglers’ business model would only be broken when France achieves its promised interception rate of 100 per cent of migrants.

    He said: “We look forward to working with the French to understand how they’re going to do that. We’re nowhere near 100 percent and we need to work much harder.

    READ MORE ON THE FUTURE OF THE MONARCHY

    Patel

    Priti Patel is to meet her French counterpart this week (Image: PA Images)

    Darmanin

    Gerald Darmanin is the Minister of the Interior in France (Image: Sebastien Muylaert/Maxppp/PA Images)

    “We need to continue to work with the French by sharing technology, intelligence and getting the boots on the ground in the right place. But the numbers speak for themselves. We’re falling well short of 100 percent at the moment.”

    The government is under mounting pressure to address the crisis as migrants continue to make the perilous 22 mile crossing.
    Nigel Farage told Express.co.uk: “The row with the French is a diversion from a bigger problem. Only the UK offers four star hotels, free healthcare, new mobile phones and spending money.

    “There has not been a single return this year and you might as well put an ‘Open’ sign on the White Cliffs of Dover.”

    However, Dover MP Natalie Elphicke told MailOnline: “Criminal gangs have been running rings around the French authorities for too long. It’s important to hear France’s plan to turn the tables on the people traffickers, bring an end to the migrant crisis and prevent further loss of life in the Channel.”

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    Infographic

    Who is Emmanuel Macron? (Image: Express)

    A Home Office spokeswoman said the British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery.

    “Our New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey. People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach rather than making dangerous journeys to the UK.

    “That is why we will have rules in place to make asylum claims inadmissible where people have travelled through or have a connection to safe countries.”

    She added that there is a global and European migration crisis and countries have a moral responsibility to tackle the issue of illegal migration.

    She said: “We expect our international partners to engage with us to stop people making perilous crossings.”

    Jet Ski

    Nigel Farage on the coast at Dungeness beside a jet ski he believes was used in a crossing (Image: Nigel Farage)

    Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told Express.co.uk that it would be extremely challenging for the British government to make the Channel route unviable with limits to what authorities on both sides can do.

    He said: “It’s not simply a door you can ask the French to slam shut. It’s a long coastline. The [British] government needs to have a more open and honest conversation about what can and can’t be achieved instead of over-promising and under delivering.

    “[Migrants] are desperate people. The more you try to close down the routes, the more desperate measures people will take.”

    Mariam Kemple Hardy, Head of Campaigns at Refugee Action, said: “Refugees continue to pay sinister criminal gangs and risk their lives in flimsy boats because the Government refuses to provide them with alternative routes to claim asylum here.”

    Both organisations called on ministers to stop their tough talk and create ways to keep people safe, not keep people out, including by working with international partners to create more routes to safety such as opening up family reunion schemes, introducing humanitarian visas and making a long-term commitment to refugee resettlement.

    After Brexit, the UK is no longer bound by the Dublin Regulation, which determines which EU member states are responsible for examining asylum applications.

    The Home Office spokeswoman said the government is negotiating its own agreements with other countries to make it easier to remove those with no right to remain in the UK and stop them coming back to the UK.

    She added that the UK Resettlement Scheme will continue to give priority to refugees in regions where there is conflict and instability, rather than those who are already in safe European countries.



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