Brexit: Barnier says agreement ‘not respected by London’
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On Wednesday 25 November a fishing boat sounded the alarm after spotting several people at sea off the coast of France. The boat that the asylum seekers were trying to cross the Channel in was found mostly deflated by rescuers. Amongst the 28 people who died were pregnant women and three children.
Now, Michel Barnier, the former French Europe minister, has vowed to pull France out of the Treaty of Touquet that governs the Anglo-French sea border relations if he wins France’s presidential elections.
The Treaty of Touquet was agreed in 2003 and states that immigration points for France will be allowed in Dover, and those for Britain will be allowed in northern French ports such as Calais.
The UK must pay for the security to run its border checking points in northern France and in return France must patrol its coastline to stop immigrants entering the UK illegally.
France claims that in practice this sees it managing the British border on French soil.
Paris also claims that the treaty has caused large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers to set up campsites in northern France.
The UK has said that France has failed to stop migrants illegally crossing the English Channel.
Speaking to French television broadcaster TF1LeJT Mr Barnier agreed with comments from the mayor of Calais saying that this tragedy was “foreseeable, as the mayor of Calais had said”.
He added: “Our borders don’t work and that’s why I ask for the moratorium to change European policies and have real borders, as well as asking the UK to receive these migrants.”
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A newly engaged Kurdish student, Baran Nouri Hamadamin, was one of those who drowned in the tragic crossing.
She was making her journey to join her fiancé in the UK and had paid human-traffickers to take her across the Channel.
Her fiancé Karzan Asaad tracked her phone GPS until the signal went dead just over four hours into the journey.
Her body was tragically identified by a relative at a French morgue yesterday.
Mr Amin said: “This is a tragedy not only for me but for the whole of Kurdistan and the world.
“I ask the French government to tighten their borders and stop those butchers.
“They are not smugglers, they are mafias.
“This is my only request.
“Those boats that they are using are not made for that purpose.
“They treat those poor people like animals.
“Where were her human rights?
“It is the role of the French government to have a strict procedure to stop those butchers to avoid further tragedies.
“And I hope our people stop even thinking about migrating using similar ways.”
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