Calais Mayor Dubs UK ‘Eldorado' for Migrants as She Threatens to Close Her Town

Earlier this year, the UK and France clinched a deal stipulating that London is to pay Paris £54 million ($74 million) for efforts to curb migrants crossing the English Channel by boat, including through deploying more security forces and installing surveillance equipment.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart has threatened to close the French port of Calais as she accused the UK of being an “Eldorado” for illegal migrants who were camped out in her town.

She told the French radio station RTL on Thursday that Calais was being “taken hostage” by more than 1,000 migrants from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa who were doing their best to enter Britain.

UK Border Force officials travel in a RIB with migrants picked up at sea whilst Crossing the English Channel, as they arrive at the Marina in Dover, southeast England on August 15, 2020

© AFP 2023 / BEN STANSALL

Hundreds of the refuges are daily trying to jump into trucks or vans to sneak onto a ferry in a bid to get across the English Channel.

“I could take the decision to block the port. I could bring pressure to bear”, Bouchart pointed out, adding that she wants “to make a strong gesture towards the British”.

According to the Calais mayor, everyone knows that “a migrant who arrives in England is taken care of” and that the migrants “are housed” and “have an income” there.

“For them, England remains an Eldorado but the British government does not have the courage to review its legislation in the field”, Bouchart argued.

She also insisted that French President Emmanuel Macron's government must “strongarm” the UK “to overhaul” the treaty that obliges France to control migrants before they cross the Dover Strait, an area at the narrowest part of the channel, which separates Britain from continental Europe.

Bouchart spoke after at least one migrant was declared dead and one more missing off the French coastal town of Dunkirk on Wednesday, refugees who were rescued by French authorities earlier that day.

The developments come amid a row between Paris and London over immigration, with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel previously noting that the French side “raised their game" after she threatened to halt hefty funding to France over Paris' "poor" efforts to stop migrants.

In early September, Patel made it clear that she would not "pay a penny of the money" if France failed to start delivering "results". The home secretary was referring to a UK-France agreement stipulating that London is supposed to pay Paris £54 million ($74 million) for efforts to contain channel crossings by migrants.

Small boat arrivals in the UK in 2021 already stand at more than double the figure for the whole of 2020, when 8,417 people crossed the Dover Strait.

October, meanwhile, saw a total of 2,669 migrants make the channel crossing in 92 boats, according to Home Office statistics.