French minister urges UK to open legal migrant route

PARIS: French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin urged Britain on Monday to open a legal route for asylum seekers in order to prevent people risking their lives by taking small boats across the Channel to England.

"Great Britain needs to open up a legal immigration route" because "at the moment anyone who wants to ask for asylum has no other choice but to cross the Channel," Darmanin said in an interview with the RMC/BFM media group.

French officials have already suggested that British immigration officials process asylum requests in northern France from migrants camped out around the major ports on France’s coast.

Darmanin convened fellow ministers responsible for immigration from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium on Sunday for talks about the Channel migrant crisis, four days after an unprecedented accident saw 27 people drown in the busy sea lane. They met without Britain which was excluded after a row last week between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.