the mayor of Calais on appeal to Emmanuel Macron
Orange with Media Services, published on Monday, October 11, 2021 at 11:36 a.m.
The elected Republican Natacha Bouchart asks Monday, October 11 on franceinfo the Head of State to “provoke a meeting” and put an end to the controversy between France and the United Kingdom concerning the crossings of the Channel by migrants.
Illegal Channel crossings are once again the subject of friction between Paris and London. This weekend, the United Kingdom rescued or intercepted a total of 1,115 migrants crossing the Channel on board small boats, while France rescued 342 migrants on Sunday off the Strait of Pas-de-Calais.
While the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin demands in London a treaty and money, the mayor of Calais calls for his part to Emmanuel Macron.
Apart from rescues at sea, there is the problem of migrants who are installed in Calaisis while waiting to be able to cross the Channel, underlines Monday, October 11 on franceinfo Natacha Bouchart. “In the city, we have about 1,500 migrants, in the metropolitan area, a little over 600. So we have about between 1,500 and more than 2,000 people who are waiting and who are organizing themselves with the smugglers to be able to make this passage. is expensive, around 7,000 euros “, specifies the elected Republicans, by directly accusing the United Kingdom.
“The British unable to reform their Labor Code”
“The British are cynical, ironic people, unable to reform their Labor Code because it is there, the problem, and it is they, in fact, which greatly increases illegal work and therefore the call for ‘air “, she denounces. “Today, Calais is a border town, it is time to break the agreement of more than twenty years ago and put the tenants and the outs on the table, since they are not making any effort“, she laments.
“It is a showdown with the British government which cannot continue to impose its rules of life on us while it accuses us and, at the same time, it is unable to regulate its labor code and the way So either the British want a migration policy that they control and in these cases, they just have to reform their country, “she insists.
More than 64.4 million euros claimed
The issue of migrants between Paris and London has been governed for nearly twenty years by the Touquet agreements, which aim to hinder irregular immigration to Great Britain by following checks on departure from France. London pledged, at the end of July, to pay 64.4 million euros between 2021 and 2022 “in order to support France in its action to equip and fight against illegal immigration” and to finance the strengthening of controls on the coasts. “The (British) government has not paid, for the moment, what it has promised us,” said Gerald Darmanin on Saturday, calling on “the English to keep their promise of funding since we hold the border for them . “
“This amount claimed is nothing compared to 1,500 passages, to 7,000 euros the passage. We are on sums of almost a million per night. And if we want to really tackle the subjects, the problems, we will have to much more “, insists Natacha Bouchart Monday, who” considers that today it is important for France to go beyond the framework of the Ministry of the Interior “.
The mayor thus calls on Emmanuel Macron to “bring together the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Economy and especially that they are all together and that they come to do this working meeting which never took place with the mayor of Calais. “ “There is only the President of the Republic who can provoke this meeting”, she believes.
“Calais today is a real border zone and we can put other systems there that are much more firm with regard to smugglers, much more firm with regard to the British, much more firm with regard to certain associations. And so, we have to be clear. And today, there is nothing clear. And it is not only, by putting in men and buying drones that we will regulate very clearly bottom of the problem, ”she repeats.