# Calais mayor warns of blockade over illegal migration



## Carl_n_Flo (May 10, 2005)

It seems that the Mayor of Calais is getting a little 'annoyed' with the situation there - and is blaming the British!!!

From the BBC:

_The mayor of the northern French city of Calais has threatened to block the port unless Britain does more to control the number of illegal migrants.

Natacha Bouchart said that her city was being taken hostage by about 1,300 migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa who are attempting to cross the English channel from France.

She said that the migrants were costing too much and making life unpleasant.

Many believe the UK will be a more welcoming place if they can get there.

In 2002 the French government closed the main Red Cross centre at Sangatte near Calais, but unsanitary illegal camps have constantly sprung up in its place since then.

In recent months French police have tried to break up the camps, but the migrants say they have nowhere else to go. They can be seen sheltering under plastic bags and sheets, and many depend on charities for food.

"I could take the decision to block the port. I could bring pressure to bear," Ms Bouchart told journalists in Paris after discussing the problem with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

"It would be illegal," she accepted, "but today I want to make a strong gesture towards the British."

The mayor complained that British immigration policy made the UK be seen as "an Eldorado" by immigrants.

She criticised Britain for demanding security is boosted at Calais on the one hand without sufficiently financing the 10m euros ($13m; £7.8m) improvement project on the other.

The mayor said that while she had not discussed her port blockade idea with Mr Cazeneuve but she urged him to open "strong negotiations with the British".

The minister - who was in the UK last week - has appealed to Britain to help finance security at the port, ministerial sources quoted by the AFP news agency said.

Ms Bouchart said Mr Cazeneuve had approved her proposal to create a day centre for migrants.

Calais is the nearest French port to England and millions of British tourists travel through the town every year._

And the Independent:

_The mayor of Calais has threatened to organise a blockade of cross-Channel ferries unless Britain pays more towards the cost of policing the hundreds of would-be British asylum seekers who pile up in the French port. Natacha Bouchart, a centre-right politician, has also demanded that British passport control officers should be "sent back home" and no longer have the right to check identities in Calais.

This would effectively move the de facto British frontier back to Kent, potentially making it easier for migrants to reach UK soil and seek asylum.

Ms Bouchart was speaking after a crisis meeting with the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. She says that the people of Calais can no longer cope with the up to 1,300 Syrian, Iraqis, Afghans, Eritreans, Somalis and Pakistanis who sleep rough in the town and try to stow away aboard British-bound trucks.

"There has been zero in the way of gestures from the British government for a decade," she said. "I could take a decision to block the port. I could bring pressure in that direction. It would be illegal but I want to see a strong gesture of support from the British government." "Today there is a state of emergency. At the very least, we expect (Britain) to say they have understood our message and offer us some form of (financial) compensation."

The French interior minister, Mr Cazeneuve, is also believed to have asked Britain to pay more toward the estimated €10 million annual cost of policing the migrants in Calais when he travelled to London last week for talks with the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Mr Cazenueve has adamantly rejected demands from Ms Bouchart, the Calais mayor, for the creation of a new shelter outside the port to take migrants off the streets. He said such a decision - in effect reversing the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp twelve years ago - would simply attract more migrants to Calais.

He has agreed, however, that a migrant day centre can be opened providing health facilities and showers and a night shelter for children and women. The migrants who pile up in Calais are just a fraction of the illegal migrants who enter France each year. Most illegal immigrants from Africa or North Africa seek asylum or lie low in France. The Calais migrants are determined to reach Britain because they speak a little English or because they have relatives who are already there.

In all but a few cases, they systematically refuse offers to have their application for asylum considered in Fance. Ms Bouchart and other French officials have long argued that the migrants are also attracted by the absence of identity cards in the UK and the extravagant impression given by people-smuggling gangs of the welfare and employment opportunities in Britain.

Ms Bouchart has argued that the pile-up of migrants in Calais is, at least in part, a British problem - and that the UK government should therefore do more to help France deal with it._


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Mon Dieu, Incroyable!!


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Well, that's what you get with no border controls. :roll: Good ole EU 

tony


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## pneumatician (May 1, 2005)

Can't blame her I would be annoyed if I lived in Calais.
At times get annoyed at living here if what we read is true. We the British need to take control.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Where do we take control :?: 

tony


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

GEMMY said:


> Well, that's what you get with no border controls. :roll: Good ole EU
> 
> tony


Tony

You are relating 'no border controls' to EU. This is inaccurate. The only border contols which have been dropped are between the Schengen signatory counties. These do not include UK, but do include Norway, which is not in the EU. So there is no direct correlation between 'No border controls' and the EU.

I have to go throught Passport Control when entering Poland from UK(non-Schengen) but not from Greece(Schengen) and vice-versa.

Geoff


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Where do the immigrants come from..............where are the border controls then

tony


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Blimey, it was 74 years ago when they last asked for our help. If we pulled out of the EU would that help them do you think, as it might help us.
Maybe send over a few lorry loads of sheep for them to burn, again.

cabby


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## BrianJP (Sep 17, 2010)

Carl_n_Flo said:


> It seems that the Mayor of Calais is getting a little 'annoyed' with the situation there - and is blaming the British!!!
> 
> From the BBC:
> 
> ...


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

If there are people roaming around Calais or any other part of France without any passport, identification papers and no residency papers, why are they not being dealt with under French Law? 

Geoff


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## tams (Apr 16, 2014)

just a thought ..... if it was the other way around would the French (or any other country for that matter )offer to help us financially ?. I don't think so.
Tamsin


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## alhod (Nov 1, 2010)

This is surely a situation where the EU should be working on a unified basis. These people are (mostly, let us assume) genuine refugees who are trying to flee from terrible conditions in their own lands.
They are not in a position to have the luxury of choosing a preferred destination, rathertheir need is to escape to a sanctuary. 
So the EU should be taking a unified approach to 'rescue' them as soon as they reach an EU border and, working together, all the EU countries should be providing immediate help (food and shelter) whilst allocating places in ALL member states for the refugees.
Truth is the problem is so huge all they want is to shuffle the issue away!

Alan


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