Calais mayor inflames Channel migrants row
London and Paris clash after French criticise Home Secretary’s plan to return vessels to France
The mayor of Calais has questioned whether Britain will begin shooting at migrant boats, as the Border Force prepares to turn back vessels in the Channel. Natacha Bouchart further soured relations between London and Paris yesterday as she urged British authorities to pick up migrants at sea. “Are they going to shoot at the boats and at the passengers in the small boats?” she asked her local newspaper. Home Office sources said the suggestion was “offensive”.
THE Mayor of Calais has sparked a furious backlash for questioning whether Britain will begin shooting migrant boats, as Border Force prepares to turn vessels back mid-channel.
Diplomatic tensions between London and Paris worsened yesterday after the French politician introduced the idea of firearms potentially being used as part of new UK tactics to stem the flow of migrant crossings.
Natacha Bouchart, the Calais mayor, told her local newspaper Voix du Nord: “Are they going to shoot at the boats and at the passengers in the small boats?
“This is not how we are going to have serious relations about the migration problems that we manage.”
She declared that “for the sake of humanity” and to prevent deaths at sea, Britain should “pick up migrants who are in a hot spot on their territory”.
Home Office sources hit back angrily last night at her remarks, with one insider telling The Daily Telegraph: “The duty of Border Force is to protect life. To suggest we would do anything to put life at risk is offensive.”
Ms Bouchart’s colourful intervention came alongside a charge of hypocrisy against the British Government from another French politician.
Xavier Bertrand, mayor of the northern French region of Hauts-de-france, said: “They welcome migrants, give them jobs, and pay them very little. As long as there is this UK attraction, there will be people trying to get through, exploited by people smugglers.”
Britain is poised to roll out controversial new tactics to turn migrants back mid-channel within days, in defiance of French objections. Home Secretary Priti Patel is determined to press ahead with the plan despite her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin declaring the proposed move to push back small boats “contrary to maritime law”.
UK Border Force officials are set to finish specialist training next week and the fresh approach is set to commence later this month.
Precise details of the tactics remain a closely guarded secret, amid concerns that disclosure would offer immigration crime gangs a head start on trying to evade them.
Earlier this week Mr Darmanin, the French interior minister, told Ms Patel to “come to her senses” about the plan. He warned that “co-operation would be put into question” if Britain “unilaterally” directed Border Force to turn back migrant boats into French waters.
In turn Britain has challenged France to explain what it is doing with UK taxpayer cash handed over to prevent migrants crossing the Channel.
This week Ms Patel warned that she is prepared to withdraw the £54 million agreed less than two months ago if Paris fails to stop 75 per cent of crossings by the end of September. The deal is designed to double the number of police patrolling French beaches from Boulogne to Dunkirk, as well as extended patrols further north to Dieppe.
It will also fund improvements in surveillance technology.
The latest agreement followed an initial £28million deal between the UK and France to curb Channel crossings last November.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden also insisted that Britain would only engage in lawful maritime tactics to deal with migrant boats. The UK would “not do anything to endanger lives”, he said, but insisted it was “right to consider all measures”.
Dr Peter William Walsh, from the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, cast doubt over the viability of the tactics.
“In order to return the boats to France you need the co-operation of the French, but they’ve said no. So doing so would count as an invasion of their territorial waters.”