Home Secretary Priti Patel meets French counterpart Christophe Castaner to discuss migrant crisis
09:55, 30 August 2019
updated: 09:16, 02 September 2019
Home Secretary Priti Patel hasn met her French counterpart to discuss the ongoing migrant crisis.
Ms Patel was with Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in Paris yesterday.
After they greeted each other the Interior Minister announced in a tweet: "We will discuss together new avenues of cooperation, particularly to combat illegal crossings of the English Channel."
Over the last year migrants have tried to cross the Channel in small boats, often having to be rescued at sea by Britain's Border Force.
The Home Affairs Committee has heard that up to July 22 there were 1,150 attempts during 2019 by individuals to cross the Channel illegally.
About 725 people arrived in the UK and 425 were intercepted on the French side of the Channel.
There have been incidents at Dover, Kingsdown near Deal, Romney Marsh and Folkestone.
It has led to tragedy with police, who were looking for a woman migrant who went missing at sea off Thanet on August 9, yesterday revealing that a body had been found in Dutch waters.
The body, discovered on August 18, still has to be identified but police suspect it is that of the migrant.
KentOnline is awaiting details of the outcome of the meeting between Ms Patel and Mr Castaner.
