CALAIS, France, Nov 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - France hosts a meeting of European
ministers on Sunday to discuss ways to stop migrants crossing the Channel in
dinghies, but without Britain, which has been excluded following a row last
week.

  Ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium will meet in
the northern French port of Calais on Sunday afternoon to discuss how to
tackle people-smuggling gangs that provide boats to migrants seeking to cross
the narrow waterway.

  The talks were called following the shocking deaths of 27 people last
Wednesday as they attempted to cross from France to England in a dinghy that
began losing air while at sea in cold winter temperatures.

  The aim of the meeting is "improving operational cooperation in the fight
against people-smuggling because these are international networks which
operate in different European countries," an aide to French Interior Minister
Gerald Darmanin told AFP.

  The main focus had been set to be talks between Darmanin and his British
counterpart Priti Patel after both countries vowed in the immediate aftermath
of the mass drownings to cooperate more together.

  Working more closely would require Paris and London to overcome years of
ill-will caused by Britain's departure from the European Union, as well as
often frosty ties between their governments.

  Within 48 hours of the accident, French President Emmanuel Macron had
accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being "not serious" in
unusually personal criticism that pushed relations to fresh lows.

  France was irked by Johnson's initial reaction, which was seen as
deflecting blame onto France, and then by his decision to write a letter to
Macron which he published in full on his Twitter account before the French
leader had received it.

  Patel's invitation to Sunday's talks was promptly withdrawn, with an aide
to Darmanin calling Johnson's public letter "unacceptable".

  - Cross-border crime -

  Without the participation of Britain -- the destination country for the
thousands of migrants massed in northern France -- there are limits to what
can be achieved.

  The invitation to France's other northern neighbours reflects concern about
how people-smuggling gangs are able to use Belgium, the Netherlands and
Germany as bases to organise their operations.

  Many migrants are believed to travel to launch sites in northern France
from Belgium, while inflatables and life jackets can be bought in other
countries such as the Netherlands and Germany without raising suspicion.

  One of the five men arrested in connection with the accident last Wednesday
was driving a car with German registration, according to French officials.

  "Let's not forget that the real problem on illegal migration flows is the
EU has no border protections whatsoever," Patel said in the middle of
November, referring to the EU's border-free Schengen zone.

  While France and Britain agree on the need to tackle people-smugglers more
effectively, they remain at odds over how to prevent people travelling to
northern France to seek passage to the UK.

  In his public letter to Macron, Johnson again pressed for British police
and border agents to patrol alongside their French counterparts along the
coast -- something rejected in the past as infringing on French sovereignty.

  More controversially, he also proposed sending back all migrants who land
in England, which he claimed would save "thousands of lives by fundamentally
breaking the business model of the criminal gangs".

  The European Commission's vice president on Saturday bluntly told Britain
it needed to sort out its own migrant problems after its decision to leave
the EU following a 2016 referendum.

  "I recall well the main slogan of the referendum campaign is 'we take back
control'," Margaritis Schinas told reporters during a trip to Greece.

  "Since the UK took back control it's up to them now to find the necessary
measures to operationalise the control they took back."

  France has suggested Britain should process asylum requests in northern
France.

  - Mourning -

  Investigations into last week's accident continue, with French police
giving no details officially about the circumstances or the identities of the
victims.

  A total of 17 men, seven women and three minors died, with migrants living
along the coast telling AFP that the deceased were mostly Iraqis, Iranians
and Afghans.

  One of the victims has been identified as Maryam Nuri Hama Amin, a woman in
her twenties from Soran, a town in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan.

  She was travelling to England to join her fiancee and in search of "a
better life," her father Nuri Hama Amin told AFP in an interview at her
family home.

  "We have no information on the smugglers," he added. "Their promises turned
out to be lies."