He said he was ready for “arm wrestling” with London over immigration. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, traveling on Friday November 29 to the French coast, where more than 70 migrants died in 2024 while trying to cross the Channel, wants an agreement between London and the European Union (EU). “We need a new relationship with the British. Brexit has changed the situation. Only the conclusion of a comprehensive agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU can really change the situation”he declared in an interview granted to The Voice of the North published Friday.
“If I have to engage in a standoff, I willwarned the minister. France cannot tackle the issue alone. The United Kingdom must play its full part, and so must our European partners. There is no question of buying our silence with English books. I want the damage caused, the efforts we are making, to be fully taken into account. » “It will ultimately be necessary to have a legal route [d’immigration] towards Great Britain and a route of readmission not only to France but also to border countries”added Mr. Retailleau.
In a press conference in Ambleteuse (Pas-de-Calais), the Minister of the Interior estimated that “the relationship between France and the United Kingdom can no longer be reduced to simple subcontracting” by France “guarding the border” between the two countries, deploring that “Brexit has[it] destroyed all the migratory relations we had with across the Channel, including legal admissions”.
Mr. Retailleau is due to receive the British Minister of the Interior, Yvette Cooper, on December 9 in Pas-de-Calais, then he will travel to London on December 10 for a meeting with the countries concerned in order to “prepare this new relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom”.
“Only firmness can resolve things”
“If things do not progress, we will denounce the Le Touquet agreements”which since 2004 have carried out controls on French soil for people wishing to travel to the United Kingdom, Mr. Retailleau further warned.
“We arrive in a framework, in a logic which is completely out of breath”he further estimated, recalling that 72 migrants died according to a count by the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, which already makes 2024 the deadliest year since the appearance of the “small boat” phenomenon. » in the Channel, in 2018.
If he says he can't “satisfaction of seeing the dead added to the dead”Mr. Retailleau at the same time excludes improving the reception conditions for migrants on the coast, to avoid further increasing “traffic and the draft”. “Only firmness can resolve things. True generosity is preventing people from drowning”he told the regional daily.
Patrick Stefanini appointed special representative of the Ministry of the Interior
During the day of Friday, the Ministry of the Interior announced that former prefect Patrick Stefanini had been appointed special representative of Bruno Retailleau on immigration. Patrick Stefanini's mission will focus “mainly on strengthening the readmission system for people in an irregular situation”specifies the press release from Place Beauvau.
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This appointment of the senior civil servant, specialist in immigration issues and figure of the Republicans, comes at a time when the government is required to give pledges to the National Rally to avoid censorship of its budgetary texts.
The minister also announced police reinforcements and the appointment of a prefect responsible for coordinating state action on the coast, in the face of tens of thousands of illegal crossings carried out each year. This specialized prefect was requested by a group of coastal mayors that Mr. Retailleau came to meet for his first trip to the area since taking office in September.
More than 200 additional people will be deployed to strengthen the teams of the Office for Combating Illicit Smuggling of Migrants (Oltim), the border police (PAF), the Calais and Dunkirk police stations or even to intervene in public transport . Mayors say they are helpless in the face of the saturation of this transport, used both by residents and migrants trying to reach the beaches.
Associations denounce an “ineffective and deadly” migration policy
Mr. Retailleau will also ask London to co-finance a compensation fund for residents and local businesses who have suffered damage to their property. He also wants British financial aid for local firefighters, 12% of whose interventions are linked to the migrant crisis, and for the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM), which, according to him, has carried out 5,500 rescues since the start of the year.
Associations helping people who camp on the coast in the hope of reaching England have deplored a migration policy “ineffective and deadly”. In addition to “reception devices” on both sides of the Channel, they are calling for an increase in sea rescue resources “so that the Channel stops being a cemetery”.
Since his appointment on September 23, Bruno Retailleau has made immigration a political stepping stone within a fragile government, displaying a tough position, and promising a new text on the subject, less than a year after a law hotly debated.
Source: Lemonde