The French president criticized Rwanda's plan during a speech on the future of Europe at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Photo: Christophe Petit Tesson
Downing Street criticized Emmanuel Macron for his criticism of Rwanda policy after the French president called it a «betrayal of values».
Mr Macron in a speech in Paris on Thursday suggested the policy would «prove to be effective.» completely ineffective» and that the use of third countries to treat asylum seekers has created a «geopolitics of cynicism.»
Rishi Sunak's spokesman rejected the criticism and said: “We disagree. We believe our approach is the right one.
“To break the business model of criminal gangs, we will need a strong deterrent.
“We need to make it clear that if you come here to small boat, you won't be able to stay. This is how we will break this business model. Indeed, we have seen other partners and other countries around the world considering similar options.”
James Cleverley, the Home Secretary, also hit back, saying third party agreements to tackle migration were “nothing new” and had been accepted as an international solution to the illegal migration crisis.
“We always rely on third countries . This is nothing new. That's why I went to Italy. We work with the French. We rely a lot on the French, they are a third country. They work with us, we cooperate closely,” he said.
The fact is that we rely on other countries. This will always be the case, because migration by definition is international, and decisions by definition will be international.”
Minister of the Interior in while inspecting a police patrol boat at the port of Lampedusa in Italy, said third-party agreements to address migration were “nothing new”; Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
Mr Cleverley also appeared to downplay the importance of the Rwandan scheme. Asked at a lunch with journalists whether this was central to his plan to combat illegal migration, he replied: “No, it is not.” Asked whether political rhetoric had put him at the center of his plan, he replied: “Not mine.”
This contrasts with the prime minister, who has made Rwanda a key part of his pledge to stop the boats.
Mr Macron made his comments during a speech on the future of Europe at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in which he warned the EU was in «mortal» danger due to rising nationalism and fragmentation.
In an apparent reference to Rwanda. plan, he said: “I also don’t believe in this model that some people want to implement, which means that you go and look for a third country, for example in Africa, and take people there who have come to our land illegally, who are not from this country.”
“This will create a geopolitics of cynicism, which is a betrayal of our values. This will create new dependencies and will be completely ineffective.”
His comments came after the Rwanda Bill was finally passed at Westminster on Monday evening, just hours before five migrants, including a seven-year-old girl, drowned in the English Channel. It received royal assent on Thursday.
Rishi Sunak this week announced plans to launch the first flights carrying illegal migrants to Rwanda in the next 10 to 12 weeks. The Prime Minister said this would mark the start of a «drum roll» of several flights every month.
Mr Macron's two-hour speech was dubbed «Sorbonne II» after a seminal first speech in 2017 outlining his vision for Europe's future. sovereignty». Since then, he said, the continent has experienced various «unprecedented crises.»
He then singled out Brexit, calling it «an explosion whose devastating consequences we have seen ever since,» meaning that «today no one really dares to propose a way out of Europe or the euro.”
Elsewhere in the speech, Macron warned that Europe “could die” and said the US was more worried “about itself” . and China than the continent.
Mr Macron called on the EU to deepen European defense cooperation through a «paradigm shift» and then suggested France's nuclear arsenal could provide EU security guarantees.
“Nuclear deterrence is a credible deterrent and therefore an important element in the defense of the European continent,” he said.
Mr Macron said Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine and called for strengthening European cyber security capabilities and the creation of a European Academy to train high-ranking military personnel.
“There is no protection. without a defense industry… we have had decades of underinvestment,» he said, adding that Europeans should give priority to buying European military equipment.
«We must produce more, we must produce faster and we must produce like Europeans,» Mr Macron said.
Mr Macron said the EU must increase its geopolitical weight in the world and prove , “that he will never be the dog of the United States and will not know how to talk to all the other regions of the world.”
< p>“We are too slow to react […] no matter how you look at it, the United States has two priorities; Themselves. That's fair enough. And the Chinese matter. Europe is far behind. This is not a priority from their geopolitical point of view,” he said.
He went on to praise France's «unprecedented» military cooperation with its «deep and natural allies» in Britain through the Lancaster House treaties and said these «strong foundations» followed “continue and strengthen, since Brexit has not affected this relationship.”< /p>
“Perhaps we should even extend them to other partners through the European Political Community,” which links the EU to 17 non-EU countries including Britain, he added.
Mr Macron also called for a «overhaul» of EU trade policy to protect European interests, accusing China and the US of no longer complying with global trade rules by «over-subsidizing» critical sectors.
This is not the first time Macron has attacked Britain over its asylum policies. Two years ago, when Paris and London were at loggerheads over small boats, he said migrants were being drawn to Britain by an «economic model that depends on foreigners working illegally.»
In Britain, Sir John Hayes, former interior and security minister, said the French president should get his house in order before he starts lecturing Britain.
“The colonial history of France is not a history that anyone would know about. desire to imitate. He may have particular problems with places outside France itself and I wonder if that influences his prejudices,” said Sir John, chairman of the Common Sense group of Conservative MPs.
“ France is also being paid huge sums of money to help it deal with the migrants who pour through the country on their way to Calais to illegally cross the English Channel with impunity.
“It's quite rich for him. lecture us on both of these reasons. Mr. Macron should get his house in order before he tells us what to do.”
The French President was advised & # 39;put his own house in order before lecturing Britain' Photo: CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
David Jones, a Conservative MP and former Cabinet minister, said: “Criticism of Mr Macron might be more justified if, in exchange for the £500 million the UK pays France, he ordered French police to keep out illegal migrants , boarding their boats. English Channel beaches, rather than stand by and watch them.”
Former minister Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs committee, accused Macron of hypocrisy when France participated in EU and UN migrant resettlement schemes . from Libya to Rwanda.
“President Macron imposed his problem on us and now has the courage to criticize us for practical solutions,” he said.
“If the French authorities guarded their borders better, they would arrest those who have no right to be in France , as we would have done in the UK, and then intercepted them and taken them back to French shores, instead of steering them towards Dover and cheerfully waving at them, then we would not need to consider the Rwanda scheme at all.
«It is also deeply hypocritical that France is participating in EU and UN schemes to resettle migrants from Libya to… wait for it… Rwanda.»
Nigel Farage, former Brexit leader The party said: «Macron's plan appears to be is to allow countless millions of people to cross the Mediterranean and then not integrate into the EU. This is a real betrayal of values.”
Rwanda’s plan was also criticized by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
Marc Francois, chairman of the European Study Group of Tory Brexit MPs, said: «So much for Cordially Concord: what a blooming cheek!»
He added: «If the French police are who we are heavily subsidizing, do a better job, we won't need the Rwanda Act at all. The French have recently done a better job guarding Buckingham Palace than guarding their own coastline!”
France, like the UK, is a non-EU member of the Council of Europe and has acceded to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Other European countries such as Denmark and Germany are considering offshore processing of asylum seekers, with policies that have similarities to the Rwanda plan.
Italy has reached an agreement with non-EU Albania , on the reception and processing of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
Rwanda's security bill received royal assent on Thursday after the Lords finally dropped their opposition to the legislation declaring the country safe.
However, a YouGov poll found only a third of Tory voters believe Rishi Sunak's deportation plan will succeed from Rwanda.
On Monday, Home Office data showed there would be success in the number of migrants arriving in small boats across the English Channel. in the first four months of this year increased by 24 percent to 6,265, compared with 5,049 last year.
The Dublin agreement, agreed before Brexit, allowed the UK to return migrants to the “safe” EU countries where they should would have asked for asylum if they had passed through them. This was scrapped during Brexit and has not been replaced.
Lord Cameron indicated this week that it is for this reason that the UK can no longer return Channel migrants to France.
Last March Rishi Sunak and Mr Macron agreed a deal earlier this year to crack down on small boats illegally crossing the English Channel.
Under the deal, the UK agreed to pay France around £480 million and fund detention center for three years. Paris has agreed to increase patrols on its beaches.
At the time, Mr Macron said the UK should try to negotiate a new EU-wide deal on returning migrants, but European Commission sources ruled that out for the foreseeable future.
Rwanda's scheme is not a deterrent to migrants, but a voter distraction. Read more
Macron's speech comes on the eve of June elections to the European Parliament, in which nationalists may make gains, especially in France, where the National Rally is significantly ahead of the president's Renewal group (31% versus 17.5% in one poll).
«The European idea has in a sense won because all the nationalists across Europe are not saying they are going to leave the euro or Europe,» he said.
However, he said Europe «could die because of a kind of trick of history” if she succumbs to the nationalists who say: “I will not stop everything that Europe has done, but I will make it simpler, I will do it by not following the rules, I will do it by undermining its foundations.”
In another apparent jab at Brexiteers, the French president warned that the only way to confront nationalists was “through courage.” while declaring that later this year, “British people will choose their future, Americans will choose theirs.”Also in his speech, Mr Macron said the use of social media by children under 15 should be limited. is subject to parental controls in the European Union.
“Under 15 years of age there should be parental controls on access to this digital space,” he said.
“If content is not checked, this access gives rise to all sorts of risks and mental distortions that can justify all types of hatred.”
Mr Macron said he did not agree with the “Anglo-Saxon” approach of “delegating” checks to “private players» that have proven unsatisfactory, and that the EU must «take back control of this problem.»
France has seen a number of violent incidents related to minors' internet access in recent years, including a beheading in 2020 teacher Samuel Paty, who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. in an ethics class on free speech.
The attacker who killed Paty, an 18-year-old Islamist radical, learned about the course through social media posts.
Social media apps It was believed that Services like TikTok also played a role in the unrest that engulfed many French cities after police shot dead teenager Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb in 2023.
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