Macron’s desire to punish Britain risks more migrant lives
IMAGINE if British police officers were in the habit of idly standing around watching migrants scrambling down English beaches and putting to sea in flimsy and overladen inflatable boats bound for France.
Imagine one of those boats capsized and more than two dozen people drowned in British waters. Then, when France approached us seeking a joint response to the chaos, Boris Johnson threw a tantrum and banned a French minister from attending talks convened to seek a solution.
In such circumstances you can be sure there would be an outcry across the UK media and politics at such behaviour. British public opinion would be similarly appalled and the PM would be in deep trouble.
Yet all those things have been done by France and its President Emmanuel Macron in recent days, culminating with the ludicrous withdrawal of an invitation for Home Secretary Priti Patel to attend a weekend summit to discuss the crisis.
Instead of acknowledging his regime’s failure to prevent mass death within its territorial waters and working with its major maritime neighbour to put things right, Macron has decided to indulge in another round of theatrical confronta- tion with “Les Rosbifs”, presumably with at least one eye on a looming re-election battle.
MR JOHNSON’S sin, in Macron’s eyes, was to publish a letter he sent to the French leader proposing specific responses to the tragedy. “I’m surprised when things are not done seriously. We don’t communicate between leaders via tweets or published letters,” he seethed.
In fact, the PM’s letter was courteous and respectful throughout, at times excessively so, such as the part when he said: “I pay tribute to you, the French government and other authorities across France, who have been working on this challenging issue for so long.”
One hopes Mr Johnson was crossing his fingers when he wrote that, because France’s efforts to stem the migrant boats have been derisory.
A more pertinent section of the letter challenged Macron to “put in place a bilateral readmissions agreement to allow all illegal migrants who cross the Channel to be returned”.
It correctly added: “This would have an immediate effect and would significantly reduce – if not stop – the crossings, saving lives by fundamentally breaking the business model of the criminal gangs.”
They say the truth hurts and Macron’s tantrum – following one when France was left out of the US-led AUKUS defence deal – shows Mr Johnson had got to the nub of the issue: never mind all the efforts French police are allegedly making to stop boats setting off, all it needs to stop the traffic is a readiness by France to immediately take back anyone making the journey.
After all, why would anybody shell out £3,000 to a trafficker for the privilege of ending up back where they started after an arduous day at sea?
Macron’s refusal to countenance such a straightforward measure – or to allow UK police to patrol French beaches to stop boats setting to sea – gives his nasty little game away: The Brits must be punished for Brexit and the Channel migrants are just pawns in a dirty diplomatic battle.
WERE MACRON to make such an undertaking, northern France would quickly feel the benefit. The endless procession of young men from the Middle East and Africa heading for chaotic encampments would dry up as there would be no realistic prospect of them making it to the “Treasure Island” of Great Britain.
So he could stop this but chooses not to. The fact that a rival candidate in next spring’s presidential election – former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier – backed Macron’s withdrawal of Ms Patel’s invitation implies that behaving in this way is thought to be popular among the French generally.
Yet parts of our own media and politics – largely those that backed Remain five years ago – prefer to lay the primary blame for this latest spat and for this week’s tragedy at the door of Johnson and the UK.
In their eyes any dispute between Britain and an EU state is always Britain’s fault.
This time, as so often, they are wrong. France’s conceited, thin-skinned popinjay president is behaving in bad faith on a matter of life and death.
Mr Johnson’s shortcoming is that it has taken him far too long to realise this.
If Britain is ever going to sort out this problem it will have to be via stand-alone policies such as offshore processing for asylum applicants who arrive unlawfully. Macron is not going to lift a finger to help.
‘France’s efforts to stem migrant boats have been derisory’