Thread: France Threatens Brexit Deal Unless UK Takes More Calais Migrants

France Threatens Brexit Deal Unless UK Takes More Calais Migrants

3PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images

by LIAM DEACON15 Jan 2018

Emmanuel Macron will demand the UK gives more money toward policing migrants and takes more in from Calais by threatening to withdraw France’s support for a post-Brexit trade deal.

The French president wants to review the so-called Le Touquet agreement, signed in 2003, which allows Britain to have its border on the French side of the English Channel.
He is expected to demand the UK accepts family reunifications and takes “lone child migrants” who are staying in the notorious camp in Northern France, as well as giving more cash on top of the €140 million handed over by the UK over three years, Le Mondereports.
French officials also want to be able to carry out border checks on both sides of the Channel in the future. According to French government sources, Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to capitulate at least on the issue of money.

The newspaper says that Mr. Macron will visit police in Calais, as well as the town’s mayor and elected officials, to discuss the “main principles governing its migration policy” in coming days before he travels to the UK on Thursday to meet Mrs. May.





Around a thousand migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and other nations continue to live illegally in Calais, despite repeated attempts to clear camps from the area.

Gérard Collomb, France’s interior minister, told Le Parisien over the weekend: “I want to come up with an additional protocol in these agreements, and concrete measures regarding the coverage of certain costs by the UK and the management of more people, for receiving refugees and unaccompanied minors.”

France will attempt to help refugees “but cannot take in economic migrants”, Mr. Collomb added.

Mr. Macron and Mrs. May are set to meet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Berkshire, with Brexit and immigration high on the agenda. An Elysée Palace statement said that “ways to improve the handling of migrants on the common border in Calais” will be discussed.


France Threatens Brexit Deal Unless UK Takes More Calais Migrants ...

DEMAND THEY GET SENT BACK TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA!

LET THEM REUNITE WITH THEIR FAMILY ON THEIR SOIL!

Britain must pay more for Calais migrants, says French minister

Interior minister calls for more ‘concrete measures’ on UK’s financial contribution to Le Touquet agreement




A senior French minister has called on Britain to pay more towards the cost of dealing with migrants trying to cross the Channel from Calais and to accept more refugees into the country.

Gérard Collomb, France’s interior minister, who will accompany President Emmanuel Macron on an official trip to the port city this week, said in an interview published on Sunday that he would push for more “concrete measures” regarding the UK financial contribution to the Touquet accords between the two countries.

The agreement, signed in 2003, effectively moved Britain’s border to the French side of the Channel, allowing UK immigration officers to carry out checks in Calais.

Asked by Le Parisien newspaper if he hoped to modify the Touquet accord, Collomb said: “I hope to succeed in getting an additional element to these agreements, and concrete measures regarding the covering of a certain number of costs by the British, as well as the receiving of a greater number of people, in terms of refugees and non-accompanied minors.”

Macron, Collomb and two other ministers will visit Calais on Tuesday, two days before a meeting with the British prime minister, Theresa May, in the UK.

Hundreds of migrants are still sleeping rough around the port more than a year after the sprawling “Jungle” camp was cleared in October 2016 when about 7,000 refugees were transferred elsewhere in France and invited to request asylum. Former prime minister David Cameron promised £17m from Britain to help fund the camp clearance.

Collomb said there were 400 migrants still living in the Calais area, and a further 50 at a second encampment up the coast at Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk. He said authorities had opened five reception centres in the region.

“There will always be migrants who want to go to England ... those who are still sleeping outside don’t want to present themselves (to the centres) because they have no intention of asking for asylum in France,” Collomb said.

French government figures released last week suggested a record 100,000 people had made asylum requests in France last year and 85,000 people had been turned away at its borders.

Outlining new legislation on asylum and immigration to be examined by the council of ministers in February, Collomb said: “France must accept refugees, but she cannot accept all economic migrants ... it’s impossible to give a dignified welcome to 185,000 people a year. That’s the size of a city like Rennes.”

During his successful election campaign last year, Macron vowed to renegotiate the Le Touquet agreement, saying France could no longer be Britain’s “coastguard”.

Britain must pay more for Calais migrants, says French minister | World ...

Brittain should tell France to go screw themselves and secure their nation.