Macron: British hypocrisy causes immigrants to die in the English Channel.
Following the London-Paris dispute over the refugee crisis, the French president blamed Britain for refusing to provide a legal route for immigrants responsible for their deaths.
Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that Britain was responsible for all the migrant deaths in the English Channel and accused London of hypocrisy.
In an interview with a local newspaper, the French president said he would increase pressure on Boris Johnson to provide a legal route for asylum seekers to Britain, something Westminster has so far refused to do.
Macron said that those who die at sea are not responsible for France, but for Britain’s refusal. British Home Secretary Pretty Patel reacted to the French president’s remarks by dismissing them as wrong. “Macron’s views are wrong,” Patel told members of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. They are completely wrong. So, let me be very, very clear about that.
Explaining London’s refusal, the French president said that the British economy relied on illegal, low-wage migrant labor, adding that the British still had a system from the 1980s that managed economic migration through hypocrisy, according to The Independent. There is no legal route for immigration. The British must articulate their economic needs and pave the way for legal asylum applications. We will increase the pressure.
The English Channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world with strong currents. Boats full of cargo often float with difficulty and are exposed to waves as they try to reach the British coast. The number of migrants crossing the English Channel is increasing, and in January this year, the number of people who made this dangerous trip by boat was six times the number compared to the same month last year. British authorities tracked or rescued 1,341 people, compared to 223 last year.
