Britain is 'El Dorado' for migrants due to 'soft touch' approach to illegal workers, Calais mayor claims

Bouchart said France would have to confront Britain over it if they were to stop Channel crossings which saw at least 12 migrants die earlier this week.

She added that France is "suffering" from hypocrisy and that conversations needed to be had between London and Paris.

Referring to labour legislation in England, she said: "We’re suffering from this hypocrisy.

"At some point, we’re going to have to have a showdown with this Government" to avoid "in fifty years’ time (being) still at the same level, with people wanting to go to England because it continues to be an El Dorado."

Mayor of Wimereux, the coastal town where migrants were filmed setting off for the UK, Jean-Luc Dubaële said: "Unfortunately, every day is like this for us. The smugglers, a criminal network, continue with insistence to send people to their deaths in the Channel. It really is unacceptable, scandalous. And it is high time that a lasting solution is found with Britain.

"Let’s ask ourselves the question: Why do they want to go to Britain? Because something is drawing them there...they can ask for asylum in France. (But) none ask for the right to asylum in France. They all want to go to Britain. So it is high time that we sit around a table with the new British Government."

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Some 257 migrants arrived in the UK on Wednesday after crossing the English Channel, a day after 12 people died attempting the perilous journey.

A pregnant woman and six children were among those who lost their lives in what is being described as the deadliest Channel crossing tragedy of the year so far when their boat was "ripped apart" and sank off the northern French coast at Cap Gris-Nez on Tuesday.

Five boats arrived on Wednesday, which suggests an average of around 51 people per boat. People thought to be migrants were pictured being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, amid calm weather conditions at sea. The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional total of 21,977.

This is three per cent higher than at this point last year when the total stood at 21,372, but 20 per cent lower than at this stage in 2022, when the total was 27,409.

There have been 2,683 arrivals in the past nine days, from August 27 to September 4 inclusive – the highest in any nine-day period so far this year. There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of 2023, down 36 per cent from a record 45,774 in 2022.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: "The Prime Minister is appalled by the horrific deaths in the Channel, and we reiterate what the Home Secretary said yesterday that this is a painful reminder of the violence these gangs deploy to take advantage of vulnerable people.

"We have no plans to be part of an EU scheme on asylum, but we will continue to work with European partners to shut down people smuggling, and smash these criminal gangs."