Fury as Sarko says: Move Jungle to UK
Ex-president a ‘hypocrite’ – he signed the original treaty!
FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy says the controversial Jungle migrant camp in Calais should be shut down and moved to Britain.
Mr Sarkozy, who is trying to make a political comeback, said the UK should be forced to deal with thousands of asylum seekers living in the shanty town.
But the Right-wing politician faced accusations of hypocrisy and stoking anti-immigrant feelings because it was he who signed the Treaty of Le Touquet in 2003, which allowed British officials to carry out passport checks on French soil and vice-versa. The agreement, rubber- stamped bilaterally by Britain and France, dramatically cut illegal migration across the Channel.
But it led to huge camps such as the Jungle, full of migrants waiting to attempt illegal entry into Britain after failing through legal channels.
Mr Sarkozy tried to capitalise on the issue at a political rally in northern France on Saturday night, saying Britain should deal with aspiring migrants to the country on its own territory.
He said: ‘ I’m demanding the opening of a centre in Britain to deal with asylum seekers in Britain so that Britain can do the work that concerns them.
‘The Jungle should not be in Calais or anywhere else, because this is a republic and those with no rights to be here should return to their country.’
He said the UK should manage the asylum process, accepting those it wants on British territory and organising charters to remove those who are rejected. Mr Sarkozy was speaking in Le Touquet, the very town where he signed the symbolic border treaty with Britain in his role as interior minister. His speech came amid growing discontent over the migrant population in France. Concerns have increased after a series of Islamic Stateinspired attacks in the past year. Mr Sarkozy’s conservative rival Alain Juppe has also called on the Touquet accord to be renegotiated.
Last night Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons’ home affairs select committee, said: ‘Nicolas Sarkozy is off his trolley. This is the man who signed the very treaty that allowed for juxtaposed border controls in the first place.
‘The crisis at Calais is due to the failure of successive French governments, including Mr Sarkozy’s, to deal with the issue of illegal immigration. A camp of this kind would never have been allowed to exist in the UK.
‘He should spend his time trying to discover why so many criminal elements believe France is fertile territory for the trafficking of people rather than breaking international law.’
Mr Vaz added: ‘It is electioneering of the worst kind.’