Migrant Crisis: Macron Says British Responsible ‘for those who Die at Sea’

BERLIN, GERMANY - JANUARY 25: French President Emmanuel Macron during a joint press confer
Kay Nietfeld - Pool/Getty Images
Peter Caddle

French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed that the British government are the ones at fault for migrant deaths in the English Channel.

The British, not the French, are morally responsible for the migrant deaths occurring in the English Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed.

Echoing previous criticisms from French politicians, Macron has said that the UK’s reliance on illegal migrant labour needs to end, and that routes for legal migration need to be opened up to stop the ongoing crisis.

Speaking to French regional paper La Voix Du Nord, Macron emphasised the role of the British government in the ongoing crisis, while appearing to play down any French influence regarding the deaths of migrants in the Channel.

“We are hostages to an absurd and inhuman situation,” Macron — who is facing a contentious presidential election in April — told the paper. “The moral responsibility for those who perish at sea does not lie with France, but with this British refusal to respond.”

“The British continue to have a 1980s system that manages economic immigration hypocritically: there is no legal route to immigration and they accept underpaid illegal immigration,” Macron also said.

“The British must articulate needs in terms of economy and reopen a path to legal asylum,” the incumbent president claimed. “We will increase the pressure.”

During the interview, Macron repeatedly emphasised the European Union’s role in solving the crisis, as opposed to the role of French officials in isolation.

“We must re-engage in a dialogue of truth with the British, in conjunction with the EU,” President Macron said. “Because it is the fruit of immigration across the borders of Europe.”

“The pressure must come from Europe as part of a broader agenda,” he continued, before emphasising that the bloc needed to do more work in collectively securing its external borders.

The UK’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, however, has rejected Macron’s assertions that UK immigration policy is encouraging the crossings.

“Macron’s comments are wrong. They’re absolutely wrong,” The Guardian reports Patel as saying, making reference to the cooperation Britain has with France “to combat the dangerous and unnecessary crossings, dealing with illegal migration, but also working with like-minded partners across Europe.”

Patel’s comments, however, did nothing to address the accusations made against the very poor state of immigration enforcement in Britain and the thriving black market for labour.

The illegal crossing of migrants from the coast of France to England has evolved to become a full-scale crisis, with over 28,000 migrants making the voyage last year alone.

However, France’s role in stemming the flow of those crossing has repeatedly served as a bone of contention between the French and British administrations.

Macron’s government responded with indignation after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent an open letter to President Macron last year.

The letter — which was posted to social media — requested the French agree to a number of measures to address the crisis, including allowing the UK to return France migrants who cross the channel.

French officials did not take kindly to this suggestion

In response to the publication of the document, the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, was disinvited from scheduled talks on the crisis by French officials, with the president telling Johnson that he needed to get “serious”.

“The only answer [to the crisis] is a serious cooperation…I am surprised by the methods when they’re not serious,” Macron said regarding the incident.

The French president also took jabs at the fact that Johnson posted the open letter on social media, reprimanding Johnson for the action.

“We don’t communicate from one leader to another on these subjects like this via tweets or by making letters public,” the president continued.

Senior members of the French government have also previously lambasted the UK for its treatment of illegals on British soil, with French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin saying that the country is too economically attractive for would-be migrants.

“Britain must take its responsibility and limit its economic attractiveness,” Darmanin said, claiming that the Channel Crisis was a result of migrants being “attracted by England, especially the labour market which means you can work in England without any identification”.

Another senior official meanwhile compared the UK’s economic model to a form of “modern slavery“.

“There is — let’s say it — an economic model of, sometimes, quasi-modern slavery or at least of illegal work that is very strong,” said Clément Beaune, who serves as Secretary of State for European affairs.

Beaune also reiterated Darmanin’s claim that the UK’s lax rules regarding work were enabling the migrant crisis.

“If the British are not going back to a certain number of checks, on more humane, more compliant labour market regulation, this attraction will remain,” the French secretary said.

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