Britain has called on France to scrape migrants crossing the English Channel, but the French government is demanding that the UK pay for enforcement aid, according to reports.
The BBC filmed a group of people on Saturday morning from a tourist beach in the north of France, with BBC Europe reporter Gavin Lee claiming the boat was ‘too much’. He said he saw no sign of French authorities on the beach.
The French government has responded that more money is needed from the UK as France steps up efforts to better control the channel.
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Large numbers of migrants have landed in the UK in recent days, with a record 235 migrants on Thursday and 135 on Friday, according to the BBC. On Saturday, two boats, each with a dozen migrants, arrived off the coast of Kent, while France reported the return of 33 migrants the same day.
A Border Force ship brings a group of people thought to be migrants in the port city of Dover, England, by small boats, Friday 7 August 2020. The British government says it will strengthen border measures because calm summer weather has set a record number of people trying to cross the risky sea crossing in small ships, from northern France to England.
(Gareth Fuller / PA via AP)
The Kent County Council claimed that 400 migrant children were taken into its care this year, including 23 on Friday alone.
The spike in illegal crossings prompted British Home Secretary Priti Patel to take to Twitter and call on France to stop the boats from ‘leaving France in the first place’ and intercepting them before reaching the UK.
“The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling and unacceptably large,” Patel tweeted. “The figures are disgraceful.”
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School Minister Nick Gibb told Sky News that the government wants to make the route “unviable”.
“We are talking to French ministers about preventing people from leaving France in the first place, and then finding other ways to ensure that we return boats to France when they try to make what is a very dangerous crossing,” Gibb said. . “France is a safe country, and if people are seeking asylum, they should first seek asylum in France.”
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Immigration Minister Chris Philp will meet his French counterparts next week as he tries to finally close the Calais-to-Britain route, Sky News reports. He also wants migrants who are caught trying to cross the channel to become fingerprints and “have real consequences”.
