Emmanuel Macron urged to be even TOUGHER on immigration as he meets Theresa May

His demands come as Mr Macron meets British Prime Minister Theresa May amid calls to renegotiate the Le Touquet agreement.

Under the Le Touquet treaty Britain’s border is in Calais – a deal which angers the French who have to try and manage migrants making bids for Britain on a daily basis.

Britain has already caved to some of France’s demands, with prime minister Theresa May pledging on Wednesday to pay some £44.5 million for extra security in Calais and take in more lone child refugees. 

Mr Wauquiez, the hardline new head of France’s right-wing The Republicans party and one of the president’s fiercest critics, told the French news channel BFM TV: “Mr Macron’s government isn’t being firm enough on illegal immigration.

“Resident permits were handed out to some 260,000 migrants last year – that’s 13.7 per cent more than in 2016.”

In addition, more than 100,000 people filed asylum requests in 2017, a record high and an increase of 17 per cent on the year before, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) said earlier this month. 

The new immigration law, Mr Wauquiez added, is nothing but a “smoke screen” to distract the French from the government’s failure to clamp down on illegal immigration.

He said: “This isn’t about coming up with a new law, it’s about enforcing the current law, and no one is doing that… [The new immigration law] is nothing but a smoke screen.

“We need government officials to tell us exactly how many immigrants the country is willing to take in.”

Mr Macron has repeatedly promised to speed up the asylum process, while also stepping up deportations of economic migrants, describing the new immigration and asylum policy as both “firm” and “fair”.  

Aid agencies and refugee activists, for their part, have accused the government of planning mass deportations, warning Mr Macron that his government’s toughened stance on immigration risked tainting his image as a humanist.

France and Britain, however, are expected to sign a new immigration treaty on Thursday to “complement” but not replace the border deal. 


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