French President Emmanuel Macron said that the UK is responsible for the deaths of all migrants in the English Channel, and accused the British authorities of hypocrisy. His words are quoted by The Independent.
In an interview with the French La Voix du Nord, President Macron promised to increase pressure on Boris Johnson to open a legal route to the UK for refugees, as London has so far refused to do so.
“The responsibility for those who die at sea will not fall on France, but on Britain,” Macron said.
The French President also noted that the British economy depends on a low-paid workforce of illegal migrants.
“The UK still has a 1980s system that manages economic immigration through hypocrisy. There is no legal immigration route,” the politician said.
Representatives of France and Britain blame each other for the deaths of 27 migrants in the English Channel who tried to swim to the UK. According to London, Paris cannot cope with the protection of its coast, Britain wants to send its own patrols to the continent.
The French humanitarian organization Utopia 56 has previously sued the Channel and North Sea Maritime Authority, the Gris-Nez Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center in Pas de Calais and the British Coast Guard for failing to provide assistance to passengers on a migrant boat that capsized in November 2021 years in the waters of the strait.
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