French president warns people trying to reach UK from northern France that they are at ‘dead end’

Emmanuel Macron has vowed there would never be another large refugee camp in Calais and warned those people remaining in the area who hope to reach Britain that they were at a “dead end”.

The French president also accused certain organisations of lying about police brutality and encouraging people to remain in Calais and attempt the crossing to the United Kingdom.

Macron visited Calais two days before a meeting with Theresa May to discuss the handling of the migration crisis at the Channel port.

Q&A The Calais camp explained Show Hide Why did Calais become a staging post?

Refugees have been gathering in Calais on their way to the UK for decades. Periodically the French authorities attempt to prevent them from coming but asylum seekers continue to arrive. Some pay people-smugglers to get them into lorries parked near the port while those who have no money try to conceal themselves in moving trucks. Who travels to camps on the Channel? Many asylum seekers have relatives or friends in the UK or have some level of English language skills. But the 1,000 or so refugees currently living in Calais and Dunkirk represent a very small proportion of refugees seeking asylum across Europe.

Although the situation in Northern France attracts attention because it is at the UK border, the numbers gathered here are tiny compared with the 100,000- plus who arrived in Europe in 2017, the vast majority of whom intend to claim asylum elsewhere in Europe. What are politicians doing to change the situation? The British government has contributed to a £17m joint Anglo-French package of security measures, including the construction of a 1km-long concrete wall, aimed at preventing asylum seekers from getting close lorries arriving at the port. But charities say extra security does not prevent the arrival of new refugees. They want the British government to make it easier for vulnerable unaccompanied children to travel legally and for France to accept that there will always be some refugees in Calais, and provide dignified reception centres. Photograph: David Levene

The Elysée had earlier briefed that the visit was intended to deliver a hard-hitting message, that “the border is closed and Calais can no longer be a destination for migrants”.

France has already warned it may seek an overhaul of the 2003 Le Touquet agreement that shifted British border controls to the French side, and will be demanding “a certain number of improvements” from London. The demands are expected to include more money for dealing with undocumented migrants and a request that Britain take in more unaccompanied children.

Macron travelled to Calais on Tuesday with his interior and justice ministers as well as the public accounts minister and government spokesman.



In an hour-long speech, he outlined his government’s “new policy” towards immigration and asylum, in effect a carrot-and-stick approach: shelter, assistance and integration for those entitled to remain in France; and a higher number of expulsions of those deemed to be in the country illegally.

Q&A What is Le Touquet? Show Hide Signed at a 2003 summit, the bilateral Le Touquet accord provides for “juxtaposed border controls” at French and British seaports, essentially moving the French border to Dover, and the UK border to Calais. French feeling has been rising against the accord for some years because it leaves France to cope with the thousands of migrants and refugees trying to reach Britain who remain stuck, in squalid conditions, on the north French coast.

As a bilateral agreement the accord is not directly affected by Brexit. But politicians, including President Emmanuel Macron, have called for its renegotiation. “If the English want to take back their freedom, they must take back their border,” was how Xavier Bertrand, the leader of the Hauts-de-France region, put it. The UK says it has provided more than £120m to France since 2015 to help pay for security and other costs in and around Calais, including detection technology, a command and control centre, extra manpower and a 5m (15ft) fence along the motorway leading to the port. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/X00234

“There will be no reconstruction of ‘the Jungle’ [the derogatory name given to the Calais camp] or tolerance of illegal settlements in or around Calais,” Macron repeated several times. “To stay in Calais and built makeshift shelters and even set up squats is a dead end. The alternative is clear; people can get to the reception centres where everyone’s case will be examined and those who have the right, given asylum in our country.”

He criticised unnamed humanitarian organisations for their “lies and manipulations” in “encouraging men and women to stay here and even to cross the Channel” and encouraging claims of violence by police and gendarmes.

But he also warned law enforcement officers their behaviour must be “exemplary” and reminded them that migrants were “people who have travelled continents; these men and women are human beings”.



“It’s a delicate mission and for it you must be exemplary and in absolute respect of professional ethics and absolute respect of the law. This means not waking people up in the middle of the night, not using teargas during mealtimes,” he said. Any excessive behaviour, he warned, would be “punished”.



Macron said police had foiled 115,000 attempts by migrants to cross the Channel last year, 52,000 less than the previous year.

The French leader began his speech at the Calais gendarmerie barracks by saying he would be raising issues regarding police cooperation and funding with May when they meet on Thursday.

Before arriving in Calais, Macron flew by helicopter to a reception centre at Croisilles, 130km (80 miles) south-east of Calais, home to 63 men, mostly from Sudan and Afghanistan. Guillaume Alexandre, director general of La Vie Active which runs the centre, said a third of migrants who turned up disappeared before seeking asylum. “But in the three [reception centres] around Calais that we run the rate is almost 70%,” he added.

The French government is drawing up new immigration and asylum legislation to be discussed at the country’s council of ministers in February.

New laws will centre on five aims: controlling the flow of migrants and refugees, a better system to deal with asylum seekers, a speeding up of the asylum-seeking process, tightening laws to remove people who are in the country illegally and measures to help the integration of refugees.



France dealt with more than 100,000 asylum applications last year, a 17% increase on 2016. A further 85,000 people were reportedly stopped at French borders and refused entry to the country.



Since last September, France has set up reception centres for refugees and migrants. These are expected to be rolled out across the country in the coming months to offer shelter for 2,600 people, to add to the 80,000 places officials say already exist.



Hundreds of people are still living in and around Calais despite the fact that French police dismantled the “Jungle” camp, home to around 7,000 people, two years ago. The Elysée said its aim was to prevent the establishment of further camps.

Macron gave his speech in front of representatives from the 1,100-strong police and gendarmerie forces deployed at the Channel port to secure the border. Last October, human rights campaigners said police violence against migrants and refugees in Calais had reached “excessive and life-threatening” levels and expressed particular concern for unaccompanied children.