Emmanuel Macron’s Minister and the French ambassador in London has denied the Home Office’s allegations they agreed to intercept 100% of all migrants crossing the Channel from the French coast.
Following a meeting with her counterpart in Paris on Monday, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Priti Patel released a “joint statement” highlighting France and the UK agreed to continue the work they’ve started after signing a £54m deal in July 2021.
The funds given by the UK to France are supposed to go towards strengthening patrolling across the Northern French coastline in an effort to stop the mass illegal immigration taking place.
The statement from the Home Office read: “Both the home Secretary and interior minister agreed to strengthen operational cooperation further.
“More must be done to stop the dangerous crossings.
“They agreed to accelerate the delivery of the commitments made in the joint agreement of July 2021 to deliver on their joint determination to prevent 100 per cent of crossings and make this deadly route unviable.”
The embassy tweeted: “For the record, the 100 per cent figure was not agreed between the Home Secretary and the French Interior Minister @GDarmanin and should not be presented as an agreed commitment.
“It is not.
“And it is not part of the joint statement #ChannelCrossings.”
The French minister told the broadcaster: “If I look back over the last three months – because the summer is a period when one can cross the sea more easily because the sea is calmer – we have increased by 15 per cent the interceptions of small boots from 50 to 65 per cent.
“It’s a good score and I am sure we can reach 100 per cent if the UK gives us what they promised.”
More than 23,000 people have made the crossing from France to the UK by boat so far this year, a sharp rise on the 8,404 in 2020.
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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