This Wednesday, September 4, the mayor of Calais, Nathalie Bouchart (LR) called for a “showdown” with the British government on migration issues following the shipwreck in the Channel which left 12 dead.
The mayor of Calais called on Paris on Wednesday to launch a showdown with London over migration issues, the day after a shipwreck which cost the lives of twelve people trying to reach England illegally, including six minors.
The death toll from the shipwreck remained stable at 12, said the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, alongside him.
“We are subjected to this hypocrisy”
“We are subjected to this hypocrisy,” lamented Natacha Bouchart, LR mayor of Calais, referring to labour legislation in England and the existence of numerous British people smugglers.
“At some point we will have to have a showdown with this government” to avoid “that in fifty years we (are) still at the same level, with people who want to go to England because it continues to be an Eldorado”, she insisted.
The prefect and Ms Bouchart were speaking at a press conference presenting the work to secure a logistics platform upstream of the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel, in order to prevent migrants from entering trucks.
11 km of additional barriers
Nearly 11 km of additional barriers will be installed in this already largely locked-down area, at a cost of 4.5 million euros, financed by Great Britain, indicated Ms Bouchart.
For the director of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII), Didier Leschi, “the issue that is raised for England is having an internal system that appears to be an Eldorado – and probably wrongly so – since it is a country where you can work very easily without having a residence permit.”
He added on France Info that the surviving victims would be offered the opportunity to “file an asylum application in France, but it is not certain that they will accept.”
Call for support for survivors
The French human rights defender called on the French authorities to take care of the survivors, “particularly the children (…) as a matter of urgency”, by deploying “all the levers of social support and, where appropriate, child protection”.
“This tragedy calls for a profound reorientation of national and European asylum and immigration policies,” she added in a statement.
This new shipwreck, after a series of others during the summer, makes 2024 the deadliest year in the Channel since the phenomenon of illegal crossings took on greater proportions in 2018, due to the lockdown of the port and the tunnel.
Twelve would-be exiles, including ten women, have died and two people are in serious condition in hospital after their boat carrying more than 60 passengers, including Eritreans, broke up off the coast of Cap Gris Nez on Tuesday.
