Calais meeting on migrants: a Frontex plane over the European coast

Belgian and French Interior Ministers Annelies Verlinden and Gérald Darmanin before a meeting on migration in Calais, northern France, on Sunday, November 28, 2021. © AP Photo / Rafael Yaghobzadeh

Text by: RFI Follow

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After the deadly shipwreck that occurred this week in the English Channel, a meeting devoted to migration issues was held in Calais on Sunday, November 28, around the French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin.

The British, initially invited to this meeting also bringing together Belgian, German, Dutch, Europol and Frontex delegations, were not invited.

The stated objective is to step up the fight against smuggling networks at this new EU border.

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With our special correspondent in Calais, 

The French Minister of the Interior insisted, as announced, on the fight against smuggling networks.

The exchange of information will be further increased between participating countries.

Concrete actions will, for example, target the delivery of boats or engines, in cooperation with Turkey and China, from which this material comes, said Gerald Darmanin.

Another concrete announcement: a Frontex plane flying day and night over the northern coast of France to the Netherlands, to spot the departures of boats and smugglers.

This part of the territory has in fact become an external border of the European Union since Brexit.

From December 1, this Frontex plane will help us very much to see the networks of smugglers, to see the crossings and to prevent them as early as possible.

Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior

RFI

It is therefore a regional cooperation that is taking place.

Gérald Darmanin also welcomed the fact that direct discussions between the EU and the United Kingdom are opening on this subject, an announcement made by the European Commissioner.

We cannot wait even longer to strengthen ourselves, to work together, to collaborate at the level of the police, at the level of justice (...) at the European level.

Sammy Mahdi, Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration

RFI

There needs to be a post-Bexit agreement between the European Union and Britain, also said Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Home Office, Stephan Mayer.

Not a word on the question of the Dublin Regulation, on the sharing of the reception, in short on a global European migration policy always announced always awaited.

►Read again: A meeting on migrants in Calais without the United Kingdom, symbol of post-Brexit

During this time, associations were kept away from the town hall.

Some Calaisians came to demonstrate in front of the square with cries of " 

", recalling that the migrants were going to continue to take to sea.

Calais women and men do not want to carry the weight of these victims on their shoulders.

And as they are people of solidarity, they are very affected by what has just happened

Natacha Bouchart, Mayor of Calais and Vice-President of the Hauts-de-France (LR) region

RFI

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• France

• International Migration

• UK

• Gerald Darmanin