Today, thousands of refugees hoping to reach the UK were greeted by armed French police as they swept up Dunkirk’s migrant camp along an abandoned railway line.
Before officers forced the migrants out, workers wearing protective suits began hauling down tents near Loon Beach, which is a famous launching port of small dinghies used by smuggling groups.
Since the beginning of the week, police have taken migrants out of camps nearly every day. Sometimes they take them to centres located hundreds of kilometers away. But often, they end up on the Channel coast.
Two weeks ago, more than 1500 people were evacuated from Dunkirk’s ‘New Jungle Camp’. This camp was compared to Calais’ notorious Jungle because of its similarity in size and the amount of squalor.
Most migrants are from Africa and the Middle East. Despite last week’s tragedy that resulted in 27 drownings, the group of migrants is determined to continue their dangerous crossing.
According to data from the Home Office, 25,776 people crossed Channel in 2021. This is an increase of 8,461 in 2020 or 1,835 in 2019.
Boris Johnson isn’t convinced the French do enough. This led to a bitter dispute with Emmanuel Macron that resulted in Priti Patel being unable to attend a Calais summit.
Last Friday, Macron warned Prime Minister David Cameron to get serious if he wants to end the crisis. But last night the French President backed down and offered to resume talks.
This despite Miss Patel pledging £55 million to Paris in June to help France patrol the border – the latest in a long line of similar lump sums provided by the UK taxpayer.
French police remove a makeshift camp from Loon Beach in Dunkirk as migrants are gathered
The Middle East and North African migrants are being expelled from their cramped camp at Dunkirk, on Tuesday.
Many migrants stayed along abandoned railroad tracks or beside a canal in Dunkirk.
The camp was cleared by armed police on Tuesday
While Britain accuses France of failing to stem the flow, France claims that once migrants reach the shores of the channel, it is too late to prevent them crossing.
French police frequently clear up camps between Calais-Dunkirk. According to one worker for charity, evictions have taken place at Grande-Synthe today in steady streams over the past few weeks.
Migrants are usually taken to various holding centers scattered throughout the country, where they can be encouraged to apply for asylum. However many make quick return to the Channel coast.
Hussein Hamid (25), an Iranian Kurd said that it was his second expulsion. The first time, he was bussed 500 miles away to Lyon.
Hamid, who was carrying a backpack and tried to get out of the camp quickly by foot, said that the police were preventing him from leaving.
A Kurd from Iraq told Reuters via text that he was hiding near the scene while police carried out their operation.
“I’ll return if you don’t locate me,” he stated, asking anonymity so as to not be subject to police reprisals.
As talks resume between the UK-EU, Jean Castex, the French Prime Minister of France will send a letter to Boris Johnson Tuesday offering suggestions for a “balanced arrangement” between the UK’s and EU.
But France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin launched yet another attack on the UK and said discussions could take place ‘very quickly’ – but only if Britain stopped engaging in ‘double-speak’ and entered negotiations in a ‘serious spirit’.
It was a dig at the UK as France continued to fume about Johnson’s decision to publish a letter to Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.
On Monday, Darmanin suggested the letter was an example of UK ministers communicating differently in public than they were in private in yet another ratcheting up of tensions.
Macron banned Miss Patel, out of frustration over the sent letter, from attending the Calais Summit on Channel Migrant crisis at weekend.
France has suggested that talks with Britain could resume, however this is Paris’s most recent suggestion.
A UK government source said it appeared to be a ‘positive’ move after the diplomatic row which erupted following the capsize last week of a migrant boat with the loss of 27 lives.
A source said to The Times that they are ready to discuss the matter, just as we have always done. We’ll need to see the specifics but we look forward to those conversations.’
French President Emmanuel Macron became furious at Johnson’s tweet calling for French shore patrols and French return of those migrants who crossed the Channel.
Macron claimed that it wasn’t a serious approach to negotiation. Darmanin however said that Monday was a day when the two countries should work together to resolve a problem.
He said that “From now on there is no double-speak” and that we could discuss with a serious mind and our private conversations correspond to our public ones, so the French government was ready to resume talks with Great Britain very soon.
According to Mr Darmanin, the Castex proposals could open legal pathways to Britain for asylum seekers as well as to unaccompanied minors who wish to live with their relatives.
He said France would not allow the practice of returning boats to sea and added that this was a red line for France’s government.
Online talks are being held between Mr Johnson and Alexander de Croo (Belgian prime minister), in the meantime.
Downing Street maintains its belief that the only deterrent to migration to the Channel is a returned agreement. This was stated by Johnson in his letter.
Darmanin previously described Britain’s demand to send migrants home from France as’mockery.
This argument was central to Macron’s last week letter from the Prime Minister to Macron. It is based on the conviction that people returning to France in order to seek asylum in the country in which they first arrived would disrupt the business model used by people traffickers.
However, today’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the letter showed how ministers from the UK communicate differently in public than private.
BFMTV he said: “When there are serious diplomatic exchanges..and lives at stake… and then you see that some minutes later, a tweet from the British Prime Minster to the President French Republic, before the President has received it, is posted on Twitter. It’s quite peculiar.
It is a joke when the English write that France should take back all of its migrants.
Before blaming Britain’s black economy for being a draw for migrants, he stated that British/French relationships were not currently “normal” and that “our private trades are not always in accord with our public exchanges”.
Earlier he had tweeted: ‘When Mr Johnson says that France must ‘take back its migrants’, what he is really asking is for France to exonerate him from any responsibility for receiving them.
“The British Government must assume responsibility.”
After it was revealed that Miss Patel had reached an agreement with Dutch ministers to ensure migrants are returned to their country of origin after having opened direct negotiations with European ministers, his comments were made.
After President Macron took offense at an alleged violation of protocol, the French government banned Miss Patel’s attendance to a Calais summit.
Despite his tantrum, the Home Office said Miss Patel spoke with her Dutch counterpart yesterday and secured crucial agreements on reforms.
A spokesman said both ministers acknowledged that returns agreements – allowing migrants to be sent from the UK back to other EU nations – were ‘essential for breaking the criminal business model’ operated by organised crime gangs who charge more than £3,000 per illegal crossing.
France repeatedly rejected any deal to allow migrants returning from the UK.
Whitehall sources said that they would have additional talks next week with their counterparts to discuss how we could work together in order to solve the crisis throughout Europe. Priti’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which is led by the British Minister of Home Affairs, will be the first in an effort to address the problems with the current asylum system and any pull factors that it has.
France and Frontex agreed yesterday to permit aerial surveillance of France’s coastline using the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (European Coast Guard Agency), starting Wednesday. France repeatedly turned down the UK’s offer of an aerial reconnaissance plane.
According to a UK government source, “We desire close collaboration” and “we want to cooperate.” We must all be at the table for this to occur.
According to a Home Office spokesperson, Miss Patel had spoken with Ankie BroekersKnol, the Dutch minister for migration. They ‘agreed’ that last week’s tragic events demonstrates the necessity of European partners working together.
A spokesperson added that the Home Secretary regretted not being present. [the]Calais: Meeting of Interior Ministers for this discussion.
“The minister for migration and the Home secretary discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation with the EU, and how they could tackle criminal gangs responsible for these dangerous journeys. They also talked about joint intelligence sharing and law enforcement efforts. Both ministers agreed that the key to breaking criminal business models is cooperation in the form of returns agreements.
According to reports, talks are scheduled with other nations this week. While trying to travel from northern France to the UK, 17 people were among those who died at Calais last Wednesday.
M. Macron criticized PM Boris Johnson’s posting of a Twitter five-point plan. This led to Mr Darmanin to cancel Miss Patel’s invitation for yesterday’s talks.
In Sunday’s Sun, the Home Secretary stated that he needed to think creatively about new solutions to maximize their impact. That’s why the prime minister of France and I are open to discussing ideas with French counterparts.
Health Secretary and former home secretary Sajid Javid said the PM’s strategy – including joint Anglo-French patrols and return agreements – were ‘exactly the kinds of things we need to do’. “These boats have to stop,” is our policy. Sky News told him that we need French cooperation.
Since the beginning of 2019, more than 26500 migrants have arrived in the UK, compared to just 8,410 for 2020.