Bill Carmichael: Calais migrants are France's problem

One blood curdling threat – issued by both David Cameron (remember him?) and President Francois Hollande of France – was that the agreement which allows British customs officers to operate in Calais would end, and 50,000 migrants would immediately arrive in the UK and set up home in dozens of refugee camps across southern England.

That didn’t happen, of course, not least because the Le Touquet agreement, which governs the customs arrangement, is a bi-lateral treaty between the UK and France and has nothing to do with the EU.

In fact very few, if any, of the dire threats issued during Remain’s Project Fear campaign appear to have any substance at all.

Last time I looked, World War Three had not broken out and there is little evidence of the genocide predicted by Mr Cameron.

Neither has there been total economic collapse, rising unemployment and dramatic falls in household income as confidently forecast by George Osborne (remember him?).

In fact we appear to be in the midst of a mini-economic boom with soaring employment and rising consumer confidence, and countries around the globe are beating a path to our door to offer trade deals. Happy days!

We should be eternally grateful that ordinary voters demonstrated more wisdom in the EU vote than our hysterical and shallow political elite.

But the threats to the Le Touquet agreement won’t go away. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Xavier Bertrand, the President of the Calais region, this week called for the arrangement to be scrapped and replaced by “hot spots” in France where migrants could apply for asylum in the UK.

This is a terrible idea. It would simply make the problem worse by attracting even more migrants to the “hot spots” because they would offer an easy way into the UK where jobs are plentiful and benefits generous.

But all you need to know about this political stunt is that it will never happen. It is part of Sarkozy’s political manoeuvrings ahead of the French presidential election next spring.

Indeed it was Sarkozy himself who signed the Le Touquet treaty in 2003 along with Sheffield’s David Blunkett, the then Home Secretary.

Under the deal Britain agreed to empty the squalid Sangatte camp by accepting over 1,000 migrants and in return the French would beef up security to stop the Channel ports becoming a magnet for migrants hoping to get to the UK.

If the French had delivered on their security obligations, they would not be in the mess they are in today. Instead a new squalid camp, known as ‘The Jungle’, has sprung up on the outskirts of Calais with an estimated 10,000 migrant residents.

People-smuggling and other crime is rife and migrant gangs are using increasingly violent methods to force their way onto lorries bound for the UK, including using roadblocks and attacking drivers with stones, sticks, and knives.

Hauliers have repeatedly warned that lorry drivers will be killed if more is not done to restore security.

Let’s be clear here – this is entirely a French problem. The UK has no obligation whatsoever under international law to accept migrants who are already in a safe country.

If the migrants in Calais wish to claim asylum they can do so in France, which, despite the best efforts of its socialist government, is still a relatively prosperous and secure refuge.

And the scale of the problem in France is relatively small. The 10,000 migrants in the Jungle have arrived over more than a decade. In contrast, the Italian coastguard co-ordinated the rescue of 10,000 migrants in the Mediterranean in just three days this week.

The French should quit whingeing and act decisively to put their own house in order. They should tell the migrants in the Jungle that they can either apply for asylum in France or return to their home countries.

Those that refuse to do either should be dispersed to camps around France and the Jungle camp shut down.

Only when it becomes clear to migrants that Calais does not offer easy passage to the UK will the problem be solved.