For Calais of migrants, “Brexit” will not change – Le Monde

Le Monde | 24/06/2016 at 18:55 • Updated 24/06/2016 at 19h53 | By Maryline Baumard

Also on Twitter, the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart relativize in stride, saying that ” it is too early to say as the output terms will not be known “.

Brexit he will change the fate of thousands of migrants stranded in Calais face a border which is no longer in the middle of the Channel, but on french territory? A sum of successive agreements has made France the troublemaker to enter Britain. This is our territory that take place the controls, and if a migrant spends the first filter and is arrested on arrival, England can return across the Channel, a simple phone call . All this is part of a series of texts gathered under the generic name of “Le Touquet agreements”.

• The agreements of Le Touquet, a short-term approach decision

These texts were s igneous by Nicolas Sarkozy at the dawn of the 2000s at the time, the interior minister is desperate to close Sangatte reception center for migrants of Calais, which extends far beyond. “Just arrived Place Beauvau, Nicolas Sarkozy goes to London. This will be his first official visit abroad, says Pierre Henry, director of France Terre d’Asile. Sangatte, opened three years earlier by the government of Lionel Jospin, will close on 30 December 2002, thanks to the British promise to take thousand Iraqi Kurds. French politicians applauded with both hands this act of authority without measure when France made a short analysis allowing Nicolas Sarkozy to pose in front of the bulldozers razed the camp, the British, themselves, see much further . “

” Mr Sarkozy was very clever because it has transformed what was a renunciation of sovereignty in a powerful act of fight against illegal immigration “, insists Olivier Cahn, specialist lawyer Franco-British agreements. Indeed, for this high-profile closure of Sangatte, the interior minister then conceded a lot.

In fact, these agreements allow the British to assist France in its territory. “This is an affront to the French police that the English are at their sides, or recontrôlent after, as if the French were not able to do their work,” notes law professor , whom he has not escaped the current interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, signed in the summer of 2014 new “settings” with his counterpart Theresa May, further strengthening this “collaboration” on French soil. But a treaty and its accompanying arrangements remain extremely opaque. This type of agreement “has the advantage of not being integrated into the national legal systems and can not be invoked before the courts” , said the lawyer. This limits the challenge …

Explanation: All about the Touquet Treaty

• Can they be denounced

It remains possible denunciation. Out with the Le Touquet agreements is possible from the perspective of law, since “The text of the Agreement provides for a termination clause” , says Cahn. “But in fact, given the legal tangle, should also denounce the Sangatte Protocol, which is backed by the agreement of Canterbury. But there is no provision in the agreement that allows Canterbury to denounce the “ says Cahn, who has spent years analyzing the tangle of bilateral agreements between France and its island neighbor.

It all began in 1986 with the signing of a sort of framework agreement with Britain. “Canterbury agreements are the first to establish the principle of a land boundary between the two States, in anticipation of the opening of the Channel Tunnel [to be held in 1994] . Then, under the government of Edith Cresson, in 1991, added with the protocol of Sangatte, followed by an additional protocol allowing British police to come to its controls in France. Including the heart of Paris, in the Gare du Nord, the Eurostar, with the disadvantage that a French wishing to go to Lille by Eurostar can be denied access the train if not the papers required to enter Britain “, says Olivier Cahn.

in this series of agreements has been added the ” gentleman’s agreement “ in 1995. “This is the real time failover French authority. This is where everything freezes, since agrees to take all the migrants that British authorities intercepted at the entrance, while according to international law, they should be able to file an application for asylum in Britain “, said the lawyer. As of this date, France is trapped. The effect is measured directly in the number of registered asylum seekers in Britain: in 2015 they were 32,275, twice less than in France

• . What will happen tomorrow?

At present, the Ministry of Interior reported that its position on the agreements Touquet does not change. They should remain as is. Bernard Cazeneuve has repeatedly expressed its status quo on the subject. In March, he still remembered that “what did Nicolas Sarkozy with the agreements Touquet, in the philosophy of these agreements was the right thing to do.” would renegotiate the consequences in his eyes, “send signals that will ruin what we do in France,” , he felt again on 14 March.

lecturer in public law at University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre, Serge Slama did not really either guess it is time for the denunciation of this agreement, “because it would not be consistent with the policy pursued today by the Department from the inside, which is to deter migrants to go to the Calais “.

for the jurist, uncertainty still hangs over the application of the Dublin agreements. Today, Britain is a signatory to this agreement which means that a migrant can be returned to the first country that has trampled Europe and, failing that, in the country from which he comes. “At present, the name of this regulation, it returns more migrants than it receives … But nothing says it will signatory tomorrow” says the lawyer, since participation in this Regulation shall be independent of joining the EU.

Observer of migration policies from the post of director of France Terre d’Asile, Pierre Henry believes, too, that the fate of stranded migrants face the Channel will not change in the short term with the “Brexit”. Or medium term, as these agreements on border control are only a link in bilateral relations where economic interests weigh all their weight.

“In 2014, the Great -Bretagne is nine years, invariably our first bilateral trade surplus with ten billion “goods” and three billion euros “services”. Three 104-20000 French working in Britain. Given these numbers, I’m just wondering if there is not there any reason that would raise the issue of human rights second “, says Pierre Henry.

These looks specialists may not prevent a runaway political about Touquet, already in flower speech. Need I remind the minister of the economy, Emmanuel Macron, had already touched on March 3 in an interview with Financial Times . “The day that this relationship will be broken , he said, speaking of the” Brexit “ migrants will no longer be in Calais. “ His voice joins a chorus transpolitical counts people as diverse Alain Juppe, Xavier Bertrand, Frederic Cuvillier or François Bayrou.