French Interior Minister Priti Patel has been accused by the French Interior Minister of planning “financial extortion” and violating international maritime law, in an ever-deepening diplomatic dispute, trying to prevent immigrants from crossing the strait by boat.
Gérald Darmanin said that the British plan announced on Wednesday night Ships sent back to vulnerable groups His government will not accept entry into French waters.
“France will not accept any violations of maritime law, nor will it accept any financial extortion,” Dammanin wrote on Twitter. “Britain’s promise must be respected. He added that I had stated this clearly to my opponent in a meeting on Wednesday.
The statement by the British Secretary of the Interior Dammanin reflected Paris’ anger at the British government’s reported plan that once they entered British waters in the English Channel, they began to reject ships carrying migrants.
French officials and labor unions also worry that as the border forces’ ships approach, the “reverse” strategy may cause more immigrants to jump into the sea.
Patel under pressure Boris Johnson And Conservative MPs have stopped the strait crossing and have approved a new tough strategy.
She claimed to have obtained legal advice for border force ships and began to divert migrant ships from British waters to France, and that the French authorities would have to send them back ashore.
French officials are also angry that the United Kingdom may withhold some of the 62.7 million euros (55 million pounds) it promised earlier this year to fund policing and patrols in northern France, unless more measures are taken to prevent migrants from crossing the border.
A source from the French Ministry of the Interior said that “there has never been any payment issue conditional on digital targets”.
The source said: “This approach will reflect a serious loss of our confidence in cooperation.”
The source said that any form of interception of ships at sea is very dangerous when these ships do not want to be escorted, and may cause more people to jump into the sea or threaten to jump into the sea.
Lucy Moreton, a professional officer of the Immigration Service Alliance who represents border guards, said she was also worried that Patel’s statement might cause more passengers on the immigration ship to jump into the water.
She said: “This announcement makes it more likely that some people will jump into the sea when they are approached to ensure that their ship will not be turned back.”
In the morning, Moreton told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the plan was “dead in the water” because France “will not participate at all.”
Union representatives who have checked the agreement using the “turnaround” strategy suspect that it will never be used.
PCS Union Border Force Representative Kevin Mills said he suspects that the strategy is part of “snatching headlines” because the British authorities must meet strict standards before they can be implemented.
“To use this strategy, you need perfect weather, you need to know that there is enough fuel on the suspicious vessel so that it can return to France, the vessel must be seaworthy, there can be no babies or minors on board, and every passenger must Health, there can be no loss of life. Very unlikely,” he said.
Tim Loughton, a member of the Conservative Party of the Special Committee on the Interior, also poured cold water on the prospects for the strategy to be used in practice.
“It sounds good. But I’m afraid it won’t happen in practice. These are fragile boats coming. Even the stronger people are completely crushed.
“In any case, any high-speed ship will capsize most of these ships, and then we see people having trouble in the water and drowning… and then we will be blamed for it.”
Aid organizations and refugee representatives condemned the statement.
British Red Cross Said that the policy would be detrimental to finding solutions to provide people with alternatives to make dangerous crossings through busy waterways.
Steve Valdez-Simmonds Amnesty International UKThe head of refugee and immigrant rights said: “The government’s boycott program is meaningless, dangerous, and almost certainly illegal.
“The risk of intercepting ships in the strait is very high. Pushing people back will endanger their lives. This is completely contrary to the legal obligation to rescue at sea.”
Johnson’s official spokesperson refuted the claims of financial extortion and stated that the government “has previously provided a large amount of funds to our French counterparts, and we have agreed to another bilateral agreement backed by millions of pounds”.
He said: “I don’t think there is any single way to solve this challenge, because criminal gangs target some of the most vulnerable people. We hope to work with our French counterparts and even the wider EU to solve this challenge. Solve it. A series of options for this long-standing problem.
A source from the Ministry of the Interior said that the government has thoroughly reviewed these plans. “We see this as part of the overall system reform. We believe that taking the journey first will have a deterrent effect,” the source said.
