Immigration: Retailleau ready to engage in a “showdown” with London

The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau said he was ready on Friday to initiate a “arm wrestling” with London on the subject of migrants seeking the United Kingdom at the cost of clandestine crossings of the Channel which have already left 72 dead this year.

A few days before a meeting with his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, expected on December 9 in Pas-de-Calais, he called on the United Kingdom not to simply delegate the “guarding” from its border to France.

“Brexit has destroyed all migration relations” with the British government, he lamented during a trip to Ambleteuse in Pas-de-Calais, calling for “a legal admission route with criteria in economic terms and family reunification”.

“There is a standoff to be had. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we have to change this relationship.”estimated Mr. Retailleau, who will travel to London on December 10 for a meeting bringing together, in addition to France and the United Kingdom, representatives of the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland.

“The standoff is quite simple, it’s at a given moment, if things don’t progress, we will denounce the Le Touquet agreements” signed between London and Paris, he threatened. Since 2004, these agreements have established controls on French soil for people leaving for the United Kingdom.

“The people responsible for these tragedies are the smugglers and the British”hammered alongside him the president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand (LR), accusing the latter of taking advantage of paid labor “with a slingshot”.

Security reinforcements

The subject of immigration, legal and illegal, is sensitive for the new Labor government, which announced on Thursday a « plan » to reduce arrivals, toughening conditions for hiring foreign workers and sanctions for companies violating visa rules.

On the French side, Mr. Retailleau announced police reinforcements, the appointment of a special representative on Immigration to the ministry, and a mission to combat illegal immigration on the coast, entrusted to the new prefect delegate for defense and security in Hauts-de-France, Vincent Lagoguey.

A prefect specially responsible for this mission was one of the demands of a group of coastal mayors that Mr. Retailleau met for this first trip to the area since taking office in September.

Around 200 additional people will be deployed to strengthen the local teams of the Office for Combating Smuggling of Migrants (Oltim), the border police (PAF), the Calais and Dunkirk police stations or even to intervene on buses and trains .

Mayors say they are helpless in the face of the saturation of public transport, used both by residents and migrants trying to reach the beaches.

Mr. Retailleau will also ask London to co-finance a compensation fund for residents and local businesses who have suffered damage to their property.

He also wants British financial aid for local firefighters, 12% of whose interventions are linked to the migration crisis, and for the sea rescue company (SNSM), which according to him has carried out 5,500 rescues since the start of the ‘year.

The mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart (various right) welcomed the fact that several measures demanded by local elected officials had been “validated” by the Minister of the Interior.

“But (…) if we do not treat the cause, it is difficult to cure”she added, also pointing to the British “which force us to have to endure for them, for so many years, the hypocritical regulation of their immigration”.

A record number of at least 72 candidates for exile have died since January 1 while trying to reach England by sea, according to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture. “A tragedy, not tolerable”said Mr. Retailleau.

An association helping migrants was concerned about the minister’s announcements “the continued militarization of the coastline” despite “the ineffectiveness of this policy”.

“The United Kingdom has already criminalized people who arrive illegally, which has had no impact on departures”underlined Flore Judet, coordinator of the Auberge des Migrants.

Associations call for an increase in sea rescue resources “so that the Channel stops being a cemetery”.

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