The mayor of the French seaside resort where five people died off the coast trying to reach the UK has blamed the British immigration system for the crisis that engulfed the town at the weekend, reports The Guardian.
“What’s happening today is their fault,” said Jean-Luc Dubaële, the mayor of Wimereux, claiming Britain was offering “monts et merveilles”, a French expression meaning they were promising the world.
“We have to go to them and change their reception regulations a little,” he told a local radio station, Delta FM.
“They are taking the border from us and we have got to stop it,” Dubaële said. “I am angry because nothing is changing.” The mayor said he was “touched” by the tragedy over the weekend in which dozens of people were rescued off the coast of Wimereux, in Pas-de-Calais, and 182 were saved in five different incidents along a 5-mile stretch of coast popular with holidaymakers from Lille.
He told BFM TV there was “anger towards the British” and sadness in the town, and that it was imperative for British and French leaders to “rework the Le Touquet agreements”, accords signed in 2003 that provide for the strengthening of border controls.
“If migrants want to go to England, it’s for a good reason, it’s because they’re welcomed, they can work without a contract, they can work illegally. That’s why we have such a big migration problem here. As far as the English are concerned, I hold them responsible for what happened in my commune this weekend, and the smugglers too.” Dubaële described the smugglers as “criminals, murderers” who exploited vulnerable people.
The maritime prefecture said it had been on alert since Friday and at least four rescue operations had been carried out, with five people dying in the early hours of Sunday off the coast of Wimereux.