Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FRANCE IS READY to resume discussions with the UK on the migrant crisis if the British enter talks in a “serious spirit,” the country’s interior minister has said.
Gerald Darmanin said negotiations could restart “very quickly” if the UK ends the “double speak” and its public comments align with what is being said in private.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson infuriated French president Emmanuel Macron last week when he posted a letter on Twitter calling for joint patrols on French beaches and the return to France of migrants who succeed in making the dangerous Channel crossing.
Macron said it was not a serious way to negotiate, while Home Secretary Priti Patel was disinvited from a meeting in Calais on Sunday of ministers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to discuss the crisis.
The row followed the capsizing last week of a boat in the Channel with the loss of at least 27 lives.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Darmanin said the two countries needed to work together to deal with a shared problem.
“We cannot change our geography, so we need to come to an understanding with our British friends and allies even though they have chosen to leave Europe,” he said.
“The common interest of Europe and Great Britain is to work together to try to solve this problem.
“From the moment there is no more double-speak, and we can discuss in a serious spirit, and our private exchanges correspond to our public exchanges, the French government is ready to very quickly resume discussions with Great Britain.”
Darmanin added that Paris hoped the “public invectives” would cease, “especially on the part of the United Kingdom towards French or European political leaders”.
A Government source said Darmanin’s offer to resume talks appeared to be a “positive” development.
“We are keen to work together to find joint solutions to this issue,” the source said.
Darmanin said French Prime Minister Jean Castex would be writing to Johnson with Paris’s proposals for a “balanced agreement” between the UK and the EU.
He added: “We cannot accept – and this is a red line for the French government – the practice of turning boats back at sea.”
Earlier, Downing Street insisted that a returns agreement, as set out by Johnson in his letter, would be the “single biggest deterrent” to migrants attempting the Channel crossing.
Following French criticism that British labour market rules make it too easy for migrants to find work, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government was taking action to overhaul the asylum system.
“The single biggest deterrent, the single biggest step we could take together with the French would be a returns agreement, as the Prime Minister set out last week,” the spokesman said.
“But we are already taking steps through our Nationality and Borders Bill to reduce the pull factors to the UK and make our asylum system firmer but fairer.”
After talks on Sunday, it was agreed that a plane, operated by European Union border agency Frontex, will monitor the shores of the Channel for people crossing from December 1.
Migration officials also pledged to work together more closely against people-smuggling networks and the trade in inflatable boats.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Good luck with that France, you get better behaviour out my 4 year old…
Priti probably thinks a another hundred year war would be good, she thought of trying to starve the Irish…
@Cowboy Ted: French are no angels when it comes to colonial history and who caused these regional instabilities in the first place.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: maybe not but they had our back during the Brexit talks……
@Sean Higgins: “they had our back during the Brexit talks……”
Only because they love sticking it to the Brits.
@Will: Read a history book ffs. The French have been our allies for centuries. A lot of people duped into the anti French stuff by a steady diet of British media.
The Brits are right. A turnback policy would stop them overnight
@Nedwerd: it’s been a long time since the British were right.
@Nedwerd: but it should be deport (return) to their home nation and not a transit country. If these people are in the EU illegally (or legally) it is immaterial, normal deportatiom rules is back to country of origin. Same here if you need a visa to enter Ireland but come across the border from NI you get deported to your home country, not back to NI. Likewise if people need a visa to enter the UK and cross into NI they are not deported back south but sent to their home country. If Ireland were used as a back door to the UK would you think everyone entering the UK illegally should be sent back here.
@Nedwerd: Sure force them to make two hideously dangerous crossings in dingys that’ll cut the numbers down.
The people who take their money tell them the UK is where they need to be and put them in throw away boats are the problem.
Where do the traffickers find their victims and sell them passage ? That’s where this has to be stopped at the start not the end.
A decent internationally organised refugee rescue group should be set up to compete with the traffickers. Undercut the crooks and provide good transport and honest advice to the victims – just don’t look like the authorities they fear, look like a better deal and be one.
The criminals are making a huge profit doing a bad job, surely governments can manage a good job at a small loss. It would be a lot cheaper than this mess.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: There are charities in North of France trying to help these people but are harassed and intimidated by French police and gangs
@Lamb: They’re in the wrong place. Everyone seems to be working (mostly at cross purposes and badly) on the symptoms instead of the problem. Like sticking plasters on someone rolling in broken glass without stopping them.
There is way too much finger pointing and way to little cooperation and joined up thinking going on.
France is just a conduit it’s not.surprising they don’t like it but arguing about what to do with the spurting hose doesn’t turn off the tap and that’s what’s needed.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: deportation to home nation is a hard one. How would they prove what country they are originally from they carry no passport
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Careful lad, you might get accused of talking sense
They took back their own borders so let them look after them. I’m sick and tired of their antics of abusing the good will, political intelligence and diplomatic procedures that the EU respect. Time to let their Brexit hit them and hit them hard.
@2thFairy: Ha the goodwill of the French . No such thing France does what it wants when it wants . Funny how they impound a Scottish trawler but stand by when the migrants are launching their rubber dingy
@2thFairy: Channel crossings went from about 1200 people in 2019 to 25000 in 2021. Go Brexit!!
@Lamb: They also went from dingys to 50 person zodiacs. That takes professional organisation.
I’d like to know if the trips sold to the refugees are end to end or just across the channel. If it’s the former then the channel crissing is the wrong place to look for fixes.
This is what Boris meant by taking back control, lol.
Angleterre Perfide
@Handsome McWonderful: All countries lie it’s called diplomacy and it stinks.
I don’t understand why France feel the need to support or take any responsibility to help the UK with their immigration problem. Britain’s immigration issue is France’s relief valve.
Britain is an outlier of Europe. They voted for Brexit so they could enforce their own immigration rules. The EU has its own immigration problem so why take on Britain’s problems too ?
have your say