France “needs no lesson from the British” on the dispute between Paris and London over the handling of migrants attempting to cross the Channel to reach British shores, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told French media on Monday.
“The British must stop using us as punching bags for their domestic politics,” Darmanin told CNews. The French minister will be meeting U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel at 7 p.m. in Paris.
“I will tell my British counterpart that NGOs preventing police from working are mostly British NGOs,” said Darmanin, “with British citizens that are doing agitprop on French territory.”
The French minister argued the influx of people risking their lives to reach the U.K. has something to do with the British labor market, “which, in the U.K., mostly works thanks to a reserve army, as Marx would say, of irregular workers who can be hired at low cost.”
On Thursday, a record 1,185 migrants reached British shores, according to the U.K. Home Office.
Downing Street said the U.K. continues to consider France a “close ally” and wants to “work constructively” to tackle Channel crossings. According to U.K. government data, 18,000 crossings have been prevented this year, and there have been 300 arrests and 65 convictions.
“It is clear that we need to keep working with our French counterparts to do more to prevent these crossings, which are putting lives at risk,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said. “That is why the home secretary is looking to speak to her counterpart to make those points and address this unexpected rise in illegal migrants arriving from France which we are seeing playing out in front of us.”
Darmanin’s comments come as the Franco-British row over migration escalates. Unnamed U.K. ministers believe French President Emmanuel Macron is using the crisis “to punish Britain for Brexit,” the Times reported on Monday.
Source: Politico
