London will set up a “kind of consulate” in Calais, announces Darmanin
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that his British counterpart would “set up a kind of consulate” in Calais where “several dozen” Ukrainian refugees, according to him, have presented themselves since Wednesday.
Fleeing the invasion of their country by Russia, “several dozen Ukrainians have already presented themselves since yesterday in Calais, and in front of the tunnel (under the Channel) or in front of the port” to rjoin their families in Britainsaid Gérald Darmanin on France Inter.
In total, approximately “800 Ukrainians” have arrived in France since the start of the war, “sometimes in transit to Spain or to England,” he added. The Minister of the Interior claimed to have obtained the agreement of his counterpart Priti Patel to install “a kind of consulate in Calais”, with the dispatch of a British consular agent on the spot, to facilitate the issuance of visas.
Paris had asked London on Tuesday to relax its conditions for granting visas to Ukrainian refugees, fearing a blockage of families in the North of France without a solution. France pointed in particular to “an administrative heaviness” because the sesames were not delivered on the spot but only in their consulates and embassies.