UK, France to Hold Migration Talks

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd is due to meet her French counterpart in Paris on Tuesday, amid calls for British border controls in Calais to be reviewed. Rudd is due to discuss security with French Interior Minster Bernard Cazeneuve during the scheduled trip, the (BBC) reported. 

    On Monday, Xavier Bertrand, the president of the region, said Calais migrants should be allowed to lodge UK asylum claims in France. A Home Office source has dismissed the idea as a "complete non starter". 

    Under the 2003 Touquet deal between France and the UK, Britain can carry out checks in Calais to stop migrants trying to get to Britain, while French counterparts can do the equivalent in Dover. On Monday, Bertrand said he wanted a "new treatment" for asylum seekers trying to get to the UK and said people living in the Calais camp known as the Jungle should be able to apply at a "hotspot" in France rather than waiting to reach Britain. 

    Current rules known as the Dublin Regulation state that refugees must register in the first European country they arrive in. This country usually takes charge of their asylum claim. The Jungle camp has become the focal point of France's refugee crisis with up to 9,000 people living there. 

    Almost every night many try to circumvent passport checks by UK officials in France by hiding inside vehicles entering the port and the Channel Tunnel to get to Britain. Debate over border controls was a key issue in the EU referendum campaign with David Cameron claiming the Jungle could move to England if the UK left the EU. 

    Under EU rules, known as the Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers should claim asylum in the first safe country they come to.

Source: QNA