French politician calls for Australian-style response to small boats

French politician calls for Australian-style response to small boats
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 10/04/2024

- 08:43

A French politician has said he would welcome the UK towing migrant boats back to France.

Philippe Eymery, a councillor in Dunkirk, said that the methods used by the Australian government, where migrant boats were towed back from the coast, is the system which Europe has to use to stop people trafficking.

Speaking on GB News, Eymery said: “I think the situation in Dunkirk is worse than I believed. We can’t see these pictures [of migrants] in France.

“There is a kind of omerta, a kind of lie by the French government and this afternoon I looked on French news websites and saw that one man has been killed, there are four migrants who have been stabbed but I have not read that the French police have been forced to jump back in their beach buggies and retreat, as I can see on the videos.

“I think what we have seen is a kind of a struggle between the migrants and the people smugglers because there are not enough small boats and more people want to go on the small boats and they are fighting together to find a place.

“Maybe some migrants have no money to give to the people smugglers. It’s very sad because each time a human is killed, or is stabbed in such occurrences it’s sad, and bad news.

“The question is, how to avoid this situation? I myself am amongst those who think we have to consider the way used by the Australian authorities for the last ten years.

“Without this kind of message and action, the migrants and people smugglers are believing that once they have succeeded in entering one country, they won’t be sent back.

“I think that the way the Australian government for 10 years has done, it's a kind of success. The number of migrants has been drastically reduced so I think we have to find the same kind of policy.”

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