Migrants: today a 4-way summit in Calais, without the United Kingdom

(ANSA) - CALAIS, NOVEMBER 28 - The immigration ministers of France, Germany, Holland and Belgium meet today at the port of Calais to decide on a common strategy against human trafficking, four days after the tragedy in the Channel, in which they are 27 migrants drowned trying to get to England on a rubber dinghy. The United Kingdom, initially invited, did not take part in the union after the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Dermanin, canceled the invitation to his British colleague, Priti Patel. What infuriated Paris was a letter recently to French President Emmanuel Macron in which the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, urged France to "take back" the migrants who had landed in England.

    Again this morning, London launched a new appeal against exclusion from the Calais summit: London's health minister, Sajid Javid, said on Sky that "we must do everything we can to break the economic model of traffickers of human beings" and this " it implies working closely with our French friends ".

    Javid says Johnson's letter also insisted that the two countries - already at loggerheads for months over fishing rights in the new post-Brexit setup - carry out joint patrols off the French coast to stop the small boats.

(HANDLE).