UK Hopes France Will Reconsider Cancelling Meeting on Migrant Channel Crossing

LONDON (Sputnik) – UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Friday that he hopes France will "reconsider" its decision to disinvite Home Secretary Priti Patel to Sunday's meeting with Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the EU Commission to address the current migrant crisis in the English Channel.

According to reports, the French government decided to uninvite Patel in response to a letter UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday evening calling on France to take back people who crossed the English Channel on small boats.

"Quite simply, no nation can tackle this alone, so I hope that the French will reconsider. It's in our interest and in their interest", Shapps told the news show BBC Breakfast.

In the letter, Johnson also reiterated his government's offer to immediately start reciprocal maritime patrols in each other's territorial waters and airborne surveillance and joint patrols to prevent more boats from leaving French beaches.

Activists and members of associations defending migrants' rights gather with posters outside the port of Calais, northern France, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. At least 31 migrants bound for Britain died Wednesday when their boat sank in the English Channel, in what France's interior minister called the biggest tragedy involving migrants on the dangerous crossing to date.

© AP Photo / Michel Spingler

The already-strained ties between London and Paris took another hit after 27 people drowned on Wednesday while trying to reach the UK coast on a rubber boat that sank off Calais. Authorities on both sides were quick to begin exchanging blame over the tragic incident.

More than 25,600 people — a figure that is more than triple the total for last year as a whole — have illegally crossed from France to the UK in 2021, according to official figures.