“We have always agreed to analyze and discuss British proposals in good faith in order to strengthen cooperation. We have accepted some of them and rejected others,” Costex wrote in a statement quoted by the French news agency AFP.
“For example, we cannot accept the British police or the army patrolling our shores; this is a matter of sovereignty,” he stressed.
Boris Johnson made the proposal in a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on November 25, the day after the collapse of the English Channel that killed 27 people.
The same proposal appeared in a letter to Johnson Macron, in which the expression of the British government annoyed Paris and provoked a new crisis between the two countries.
In his letter, the British Prime Minister proposed to France a “bilateral review agreement that would allow the return of all illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel”.
“The withdrawal of immigrants is not an option for us, it is not a serious or responsible way to approach the issue,” said a French government source quoted under anonymous cover.
“More than 700 Republican police and guards inspect the Opel (northern) coast daily to prevent dangerous ships from going to sea,” Costex said in a letter.
“Part of these activities are being carried out under the terms of our cooperation agreements, with the financial contribution of your government,” he recalled.
However, the French prime minister continued, “These efforts only make it possible to control the event and do not give a lasting response.”
For that reason, he adopted the “most effective return policy” and called for the adoption of “legal immigration routes” for those seeking “legal immigration routes” to the country.
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