France gets EU help to curb people smuggling in Channel

PARIS • France has agreed with its European allies to take fresh measures to clamp down on illegal people-smuggling in the Channel, days after 27 migrants died trying to reach Britain.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin met his German, Dutch and Belgian counterparts as well as officials from the European Commission in Calais on Sunday.

They agreed that monitoring flights by aircraft from the European Union's border force would start tomorrow, he said.

The Nov 24 tragedy triggered a blame game between the French and British governments over responsibility for the deaths.

France withdrew an invitation to Britain to attend the Calais meeting, while Mr Darmanin has said lax British controls on workers' identities had made the country a magnet for migrants.

"We have gathered a group of countries that have a common destiny, which is called Europe," Mr Darmanin told reporters after the meeting.

While France would not be "held hostage" by Britain over the migrant issue, the French government would like to see better cooperation with "our British friends", the minister said.

Separately, Mr Darmanin urged Britain to open a legal route for asylum seekers, to prevent people from risking their lives by taking small boats across the Channel to England.

"Great Britain needs to open up a legal immigration route" because "at the moment, anyone who wants to ask for asylum has no other choice but to cross the Channel", he told the RMC/BFM media group yesterday.

Paris has already suggested that British immigration officials process asylum requests in northern France from migrants camped out around the major ports on the French coast.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously suggested sending police and border agents to patrol alongside their French counterparts on the beaches of northern France, but Paris rejected that as an infringement on sovereignty.

Mr Johnson has also proposed sending back all migrants who land in England, a move that he said would save "thousands of lives by fundamentally breaking the business model of the criminal gangs".

Around 26,000 people have sailed from France to England this year, leading to severe pressure on the British government, which has vowed to reduce migration after pushing through Britain's departure from the EU.

The French minister for European affairs yesterday slammed the British economic model for being a migrant magnet tantamount to "modern slavery".

Migrants are drawn to Britain because it is easier to find a poorly paid job on the black market, Mr Clement Beaune told France Inter radio.

"Why do people want to go to the UK? Because of the language, because people are trying to join their families, and because there is an economic model that is sometimes quasi modern slavery," he said.

Mr Beaune also called for a firm approach in reviewing how the two countries work together.

Britain and France are at a sensitive time in their post-Brexit relationship, which has been strained by tensions on a range of issues from defence to the granting of fishing licences.

Australia's decision in September to ditch a submarine contract with France in favour of an agreement with the United States and Britain served to further inflame tensions.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE