Macron: UK ‘hypocrisy’ to blame for Channel migrant deaths

France’s President Emanuel Macron says London refuses to establish a legal migration route to Britain, and is therefore responsible for the death of the migrants, who undertake the perilous journey through the Channel.

“The British continue to have a system from the 1980s, which manages economic immigration through hypocrisy. There is no legal immigration route,” Macron told the French newspaper La Voix du Nord on Wednesday.

This is while the British economy relies on illegal migration, he added. “The British must articulate their needs in terms of the economy and reopen a path to legal asylum requests,” noted the French head of state.

“The responsibility for those who die at sea does not fall upon France but upon this British refusal,” Macron said.

He also vowed that Paris was going to step up the pressure on London over the matter. UK Home Secretary Priti Patel responded to the remarks by alleging that the French statesman’s comments were “absolutely wrong.”

According to The Independent, the numbers of migrants, who cross the Channel, is rising and six times as many people made the journey by boat this January, compared to the same month last year. UK authorities intercepted 1,341 people compared to 223 the year before.

Last year, as people smugglers exploited demand, charging thousands of pounds for trips across the busy shipping lane in flimsy boats, at least 28,395 people reached the UK more than triple the figure for 2020.

The peak came in November, during the course of which at least 6,869 people reached the UK, spurred by favorable weather conditions.

SS