Germany and France urged EC to start talks with Britain on migration and asylum

Germany and France urged EC to start talks with Britain on migration and asylum

Germany and France have called on the European Commission to start negotiations with the UK on an agreement on migration and asylum, the AFP news agency reported citing a letter from German Interior Minister Nancy Feather and her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin, available for editorial purposes.

It states, among other things, that Brexit has had “a very damaging impact on the coherence of our migration policy,” so the European Commission should “quickly prepare a draft mandate for negotiations” with the UK. The letter was addressed to the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.

“The lack of provisions governing the movement of people between the UK and the Schengen area” is clearly increasing migration flows and the growing number of illegal migrants heading to the UK through the Channel and North Sea is putting their lives at risk, the letter from the two countries’ ministers said.

In turn, routes from the UK to the EU account for “almost a third of illegal entries” into the Schengen area, Feather and Darmanen emphasize. In their view, the “lack of legal prospects” in the UK encourages illegal migrants to go underground and “strengthens smuggling groups.”

Feather and Darmanen also noted that the entry into office of the new British government is the right time to achieve “concrete progress” on illegal migration, asylum, as well as legal migration on family and professional grounds, reports Deutsche Welle.