PARIS (Reuters) -French Prime Minister Jean Castex advised his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, that he rejected the concept of a joint British-French patrol within the English Channel to battle clandestine migration to Britain, a letter obtained by Reuters confirmed on Thursday.
“France is able to pursue our operational cooperation with the UK”, the letter mentioned, however added: “We can’t settle for … British police or army patrol on our coast. It is a matter of our sovereignty.”
Johnson final week advised a joint coast patrol in a letter he despatched to French President Emmanuel Macron — and later printed on Twitter — after 27 migrants misplaced their lives within the Channel as they tried to succeed in British shores.
Johnson’s tweet brought on outrage in France, resulting in Macron telling London to “get severe.”
“I am stunned when issues usually are not performed severely. We do not talk between leaders through tweets or printed letters, we aren’t whistle-blowers. Come on. Come on,” Macron later advised a information convention in Rome.
Relations between the standard allies are already strained, together with by a current submarines take care of Australia which changed one it had with France, and a battle about post-Brexit fishing licences.
In Thursday’s letter, Castex reiterated that it was as much as Britain to resolve the continuing disaster.
“A big a part of the answer doesn’t lie in France, however in the UK. Actually, you’ll be able to deter the migrants who usually are not destined to settle [in Britain] from coming to your territory by conducting a more practical return coverage.”
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Enhancing by Sandra Maler)
