French minister implies ‘irregular work’ in Britain is pull factor for channel migrants
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin has criticised Britain’s approach to the ongoing channel crossings crisis today.
Speaking to RTL Radio, Darmanin admitted that while “It’s an international problem… There is bad immigration management (in the UK).”
He also implied in an interview with CNews TV that UK pull factors were creating the border crisis, saying: “If the British overhauled their (labour) legislation, they started doing it but haven’t gone far enough, there would be no people in Calais and Dunkerque.
“Why do they go to Britain? Because the British labour market functions, in many ways, with an army of reserves, as Karl Marx would say, of irregular workers,” he went on.
The Prime Minister spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday evening following a migrant boat accident on Wednesday afternoon in the English Channel, in which as many as 33 people are reported to have died, including a little girl.
Around 10 other migrants have died in recent weeks attempting this journey.
