After the boat accident in the English Channel with 27 dead, the dispute between London and Paris over measures to curb illegal migration on the Strait threatens to escalate. France canceled a meeting with Britain on migration across the English Channel on Friday – shortly after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Twitter called for an agreement with France to take back migrants.
The planned meeting of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin with his British counterpart Priti Patel on Sunday will not take place, said a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry in Paris on Friday. As planned, Darmanin will meet representatives of the interior ministries from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium on Sunday to discuss the situation on the English Channel. 27 people died there on Wednesday on the way to Great Britain when their boat capsized. Johnson had previously written in a letter calling for a refugee readmission agreement, among other measures. That could be the “biggest single step” to destroy the business model of criminal smugglers. Since the implementation of Brexit, Great Britain can no longer make use of a corresponding EU regulation on the return of asylum seekers. In the letter to “dear Emmanuel” (French President Emmanuel Macron) published on Twitter, Johnson also called for joint police patrols on French beaches, the use of technology such as sensors and radar, access to French territorial waters, air surveillance and closer cooperation with the secret service. Macron was not very pleased. “You don’t communicate about such things between heads of state via tweet and published letters,” said the French head of state. He also doubted the seriousness of the British advance.