ER Editor: for an update on this story, we recommend the brief Westmonster report, MAY CAPITULATES: £44.5M TO FRENCH FOR CALAIS, MORE ‘CHILD MIGRANTS’:
This is despite the fact idiotic EU policy caused the migrant crisis in the first place and his (Macron) own borders and internal security are so weak that migrants were allowed to wander in (and then all the way through) France before massing at Calais.
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Macron eyes France-UK border agreement
NIKOLAJ NIELSEN
French president Emmanuel Macron is set to discuss reforming a bilateral border agreement with UK prime minister Theresa May on Thursday (18 January) amid pressure to prevent migrants from settling around the port city of Calais.
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Three people recently died in their efforts to reach the UK from Calais
The Le Touquet agreement from 2003 allows British border controls to take place in Calais as well as similar French controls in the UK.
Macron has threatened to overhaul the agreement with demands that may include more British funding as well as requests to take in more refugees and unaccompanied minors as part of a larger effort to prevent migrant camps from mushrooming in Calais.
In an apparent bid to sweeten the diplomatic pill, Macron is also due to announce that France will send the famous Bayeux Tapestry on loan to the UK. The 11th century artwork depicts the Norman invasion of Britain, and is housed in a special museum in Bayeux, Normandy.
Similar demands to Macron’s have been made by Calais’ right-wing mayor Natacha Bouchart, who told this website in 2016 that France should “take advantage of UK’s EU exit vote” to scrap the agreement and have Britain shoulder expenses.
French authorities at the time had dismantled the so-called Jungle where thousands of people were living in ad-hoc settlements near the city of Calais.
Up to 600 people are now thought to be in Calais in a desperate bid to reach the UK with France deploying 1,130 police officers to patrol the area. Many of the people are said to be from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Some are sleeping rough, others are housed by Calais residents, with another 270 in temporary shelters to protect them from the cold. Three recently died in their attempt to reach the UK.
On official visit in Calais on Tuesday (16 January), Macron said he would not allow another settlement to emerge as he outlined French migration plans to increase accommodation, shorten asylum procedures, create better integration opportunities, and finance the distribution of food to migrants. Food distribution is currently done by NGOs.
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