A group of French mayors have called for a key cross-Channel migrant deal with the UK to be ripped up, accusing Britain of being two-faced in its approach to the migrant crisis.
The Group of Mayors from the Opal Coast, which includes Calais as well as 14 smaller towns engulfed by the small boats crisis, has called for the renegotiation of a deal that allows Britain and France to carry out checks in each other’s ports.
The group, led by Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart, have accused the UK of hypocrisy for claiming to want to stop migrants crossing the Channel, while letting most of those who arrive settle in Britain.
They also want the UK to open up legal routes for migrants to cross into Britain to dissuade them from turning to people-smuggling gangs offering journeys via small boat.
The group of mayors argue that the 2003 Touquet treaty should be renegotiated, with Border Force officers sent back to the UK, taking the camps blighting the French coast transferred to Kent, The Times has reported.
On top of the renegotiation, the group has demanded “humanitarian centres” located away from the French coast. The centres would see migrants housed while their applications for asylum assessed by British and French authorities.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ms Bouchart asked why France should pay millions of euros to stop crossings only for migrants to work illegally in Britain, with little chance of being deported.
She said: “When the migrants arrive in Britain they work easily without documents… the British government must stop being in denial.
“In reality, they accept migrants passing through Calais so they have to change the system. The UK should be stopping people, not us.
“We think the French government and Europe aren’t being tough enough on this toward the British government.”
But Sir Keir quickly brushed off calls from the coalition and stressed the UK’s commitment to working internationally to tackle the flow of migrants across the Channel.
Asked about the calls on BBC Radio Kent, Sir Keir indicated that Border Force checks in France were not up for negotiation.
The prime minister said he has gone above the heads of a group of mayors in the north of the country and is “taking this up with the French authorities”, stressing that the deal is “very important”.
He said: “Look, we need those checks to be carried out there, and I’m taking this up with the French authorities because it’s a very important provision, and so I am concerned about that and determined to make sure that we get the checks where we need them.”
Pressed on his record tackling the number of small boat crossings, Sir Keir said he was working with “other countries” to tackle the issue.
Asked why he thought he would be able to solve the problem, he told BBC Radio Kent: “Because what we’re doing is working to take down the people that are running this trade, putting people on the boats in the first place.”
More than 33,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via small boat channel crossings so far this year, more than for the whole of 2023.