Britain’s half-hearted approach to Europe has been blamed by the mayor of Calais for the thousands of migrants who gather in the town trying to cross the Channel.
Natacha Bouchart has claimed that Britain refuses to take any responsibility for the problems caused by migrants in the French Channel port.
“A country cannot remain both in and out of Europe, creating problems but providing no compensation and no support to local authorities such as mine and others, which are left alone to assume huge responsibilities,” she said in an interview with the Council of Europe’s Journal published on Monday.
“The city of Calais has to deal with the problems caused by an EU country that has not adopted the EU rules contained in the Schengen agreement,” said the mayor in a fresh attack on Britain’s lack of response.
“The UK is not really interested since border controls take place on French soil. It provides no support to the city of Calais, nor to the local population, and it leaves the mayor of Calais to manage the problem without financial assistance. It’s truly an enormous responsibility and hugely difficult for me personally as mayor of a town of 75,000 inhabitants,” she added.
The first new permanent accommodation building for migrants since the closure of the Sangatte Red Cross camp in 2002 opened last week. It caters only for women and children. Officials warned the migrant residents of the makeshift camps that have existed in the Channel port for the past decade that they should leave or face eviction by riot police.
The number of migrants trying to cross to Britain from Calais rose last year from 500 to 3,000 but the numbers are believed to have halved over recent weeks.
Bouchart said that they didn’t want to claim asylum in France but get to the UK because there were better conditions for them than anywhere else in Europe: “There are no ID cards. They can easily find work outside the formal economy, which is not really controlled. They can get social welfare support that doesn’t exist in other countries,” she said. Most are currently refused entry at the UK border, which has been moved from Dover to Calais, leaving them in the port to try their luck to enter illegally.
The Calais mayor said, with as many as 3,000 migrants gathered in the port, she was unable to handle the situation. There were minor conflicts and tensions, houses were squatted and they were unable to provide eating and shower facilities.
“I had to remind the British government of its responsibility, too, which has a tendency to often despise the local population, to disregard elected officials, and frankly will take no part of the responsibility. We are suffering the consequences of the British government’s actions, which takes from Europe the things that suit it but doesn’t want to get fully involved in the European project.”
She said the £12m that the UK government had made available had gone on security and building bigger fences at Calais rather than repairing the damage to the port’s tarnished image or the resulting economic damage that had been done.
Bouchart said that the problem of migratory populations across Europe could not be ignored any longer and it was time to insist that all EU countries, including Britain, signed up to the Schengen accords.
“Each European country must be obliged to participate in a new mechanism. There must be restrictions, quotas that are revised every two to three years, according to world events, because that’s key. Each country will have to create reception centres to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants – something that doesn’t yet exist,” she said adding that countries that won’t take any responsibility need to face some kind of sanctions.
