The day after an emergency meeting in Calais, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin returned this Monday morning to the migration crisis and the difficulties that persist on the issue between France and the United Kingdom.
A meeting in the Defense Council concerning migration is to be held Monday morning in Paris "to take stock", he said at the microphone of BFM-RMC.
Read also Shipwreck of migrants: escalating tensions between France and the United Kingdom
By the way, Gérald Darmanin said he was "ready" to discuss with his British counterpart Priti Patel "on condition of having a relationship of equality, which we do not have today", he admitted. .
In the eyes of the Minister, the migration issue in the Channel remains first and foremost an “English issue”.
"It is because there is no legal route for immigrants who want to go to Great Britain that there is this demand for air", estimates the tenant of Place Beauvau who calls England to "change its legislation and assume its responsibilities".
Migrants: Gérald Darmanin (@GDarmanin) calls on the English to "change their legislation" and "take their responsibilities" pic.twitter.com/zg97WePWp8
- BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 29, 2021
The minister recalled that London lists 30,000 asylum requests per year when France has “around 150,000”.
“To date, 60% of migrants who cross the Channel by boat are eligible for asylum.
England must study these access requests, ”said Gerald Darmanin.
Regarding France, the minister also returned to the images of tents laceration that had shocked public opinion in recent months during the evacuation of a migrant camp in Grande-Synthe.
Last January, men in coveralls, sometimes hooded, were photographed slashing the walls of tents with a knife.
"It was not the police who tore up the tents"
“A private company was hired by the state after the evacuation was done to retrieve the tents, throw them away, and tear them apart.
There was no order from the state, it was society that did it.
We asked to stop this.
But it was not the police and the gendarmes who took the cutters and slashed the tents, ”he maintained.
Finally, the Minister returned to the figures for immigration in France, recalling that 20,000 escorts to the border were carried out in 2021. Finally, between 130,000 and 15,000 asylum applications were recorded on French soil, with “nearly 30% of requests accepted”.
On Sunday, participants in an emergency European meeting in Calais agreed to "improve joint cooperation with the United Kingdom" in the face of migratory trafficking, despite the absence of the British.
The meeting took place in reaction to the worst migratory drama to have occurred in the sea separating France from the United Kingdom, which claimed the lives of at least 27 shipwrecked migrants on Wednesday.