Sino-British relations are strained France On Wednesday, after French officials rejected Britain’s claim that they agreed to block “100% transit”, incidents of migrant ships crossing the English Channel rose.
The protracted quarrel broke out 48 hours after British Home Secretary Pritty Patel met with her Foreign Minister Gerald Dammanin in Paris to discuss the issue that poisoned the relationship between the two countries. Before Monday night’s meeting, Dammanen issued a tough statement accusing Britain of using France as a “punching bag” for domestic political disputes.
The “Joint Statement” issued by the Ministry of the Interior after the meeting stated: “The Minister of the Interior and the Minister of the Interior have agreed to further strengthen business cooperation. More measures must be taken to prevent dangerous border crossings. They agreed to expedite the implementation of the July 2021 joint agreement. The promises made to fulfill their mutual determination to prevent 100% of the border crossing and make this deadly route infeasible.”
However, on Wednesday the French Embassy in London raised objections to the “Joint Statement”. It wrote on Twitter: “According to the record, the Minister of the Interior and the French Minister of the Interior @GDarmanin did not agree on the 100% figure and should not be presented as an agreed commitment. It is not. It is not a joint statement by #ChannelCrossings Part”.
https://twitter.com/FranceintheUK/status/1461019816249200640
When asked to prove the rationality of the “100%” figure, a source from the Ministry of the Interior pointed out that the Sky News TV report on October 11 included an interview with Darmanin. The French minister told the broadcaster: “If I look back at the past three months-because summer is a time when it is easier to cross the sea, because the sea is calmer-we have increased the interception of small boots by 15% to 50%. 65%. This is a good score and I believe that if the UK fulfills their promise, we can reach 100%.”
Darmanin refers to the fact that Britain has agreed to pay France 60 million euros (54 million pounds) for patrolling the northern coast of France and preventing people from crossing the English Channel dangerous journey.
On Wednesday, Tom Pursglove, the Minister of the Interior, refused to tell members of Congress how much of the 54 million pounds had been handed over to the French government so far. At the end of October, French sources stated that they had only received about 17 million pounds.
The Home Office said that British authorities rescued or intercepted 66 people on a small boat on Wednesday. Sources in the department said that about 1,000 people went to the UK by boat on Tuesday, but the exact number has yet to be confirmed.
