In the wake of the loss of at least 27 lives in the sinking last week of a boat carrying migrants sailing from France to Britain, French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said the British government must 'open up a legal immigration route' because asylum-seekers have 'no other choice' than to cross the Channel in clandestine conditions.
In the French port of Calais, relatives and friends of those lost in the sinking of a dinghy in the Channel last Wednesday, when at least 27 people died as they attempted a clandestine crossing to Britain, are desperate for answers about what happened.
Speaking after a meeting in Calais on Sunday with European counterparts to discuss clandestine migration and people trafficking, following the deaths of at least 27 people trying to cross the Channel to the UK last Wednesday, France's interior minister spoke of the need to cooperate 'seriously' on the issue with London but 'without being held hostage by domestic British politics'.
British junior minister Damian Hinds, whose responsibilities include border control, has said cooperation with France on the subject of clandestine migrant crossings of the Channel "is strong", downplaying the angry response of President Emmanuel Macron to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Twitter post of new proposals for tackling the crisis, which was heightened last week by the deaths of at least 27 people in seas off Calais.
French President Emmanuel Macron described as 'not serious' UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's choice of using Twitter to set out policy propositions to France over clandestine crossings of the Channel, while an invitation for Home Secretary Priti Patel to attend a meeting in Calais on the issue has been withdrawn.
The ports of Saint-Malo, Ouistreham and Calais were subjected to a brief blockade by French fishers on Friday in what they called a 'symbolic' warning of how they would block freight moving across the Channel if the UK does not provide them with more licences to fish in its waters.
The latest toll of the sinking of a dinghy carrying migrants attempting to cross the Channel from France to the UK on Wednesday is at least 27 dead, including seven women, one of whom was pregnant, and three children, while two survivors are critically ill in hospital.
At least 31 migrants attempting to cross the Channel to Britain have died after their dinghy capsized on Thursday afternoon in seas close to the French port of Calais, where a search for survivors is continuing into the night.
Stéphane Richard, CEO of French telecoms giant Orange, has been handed a suspended jail sentence after he was found guilty by a Paris appeals court of aiding and abetting the misuse of public funds in a case centered on a 403-million-euro state payout awarded in 2008 to late French tycoon Bernard Tapie.
