Paris, London to seal deal on Calais migrant crisis
Paris and London have agreed on a deal to curb the alarming influx of migrants into Britain from the northern French port city of Calais.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and his British counterpart Theresa May will sign the deal on Thursday to form a united front against the worsening migrant crisis.
The deal will obligate London to dispatch police forces to the port city to form a joint “Command and Control Center” with the French troops. According to the deal, the center will be supervised by two senior commanders from the two countries.
As part of the deal, Paris is also required to deploy more troops and install more security systems in the zone, including infrared detection technology, cameras and flood lighting.
The decision came a week after British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to adopt serious measures to prevent “economic migrants” from entering the European country.
“A lot of people coming to Europe are coming in search of a better life. They are economic migrants and they want to enter Britain illegally, and the British people and I want to make sure our borders are secure and you can’t break into Britain without permission,” he said.
This is while some British lawmakers have voiced pessimism about the efficiency of the agreement.
“Closing off one route will only mean the problem moves to another port,” said British MP Keith Vaz, adding, “We need agreements with countries across the north coast to stop this situation developing before we see Calais-like crises spring up at ports across the continent.”
Mike Hookem, a member of the European Parliament from the UK Independence Party, also called into question the prospective success of the deal, saying it is “too little, too late.”
“The migration crisis has spread beyond Calais and cannot be solved by these two countries because it starts in the Mediterranean,” he said.
Calais is the gathering place of some 3,000 of illegal migrants, mostly from Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries, who want to reach Britain aboard trucks that leave the French port for Britain on a daily basis.
According to an investigation conducted by British daily The Guardian, at least 15 migrants, including young women and teenagers, were killed in and around Calais in 2014. At least 10 refuges have also lost their lives in the region since June.
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