Emmanuel Macron has suggested that the UK should allow illegal migrants, waiting in France to cross the English Channel, to enter freely under “family reunification” grounds.

The French president made the remarks after the UK has seen a series of record-breaking crossings of mostly Middle Eastern male migrants in the past few months, largely travelling from France, with some 24,500 reaching British shores already this year.

Speaking to the regional La Voix du Nord newspaper this week, President Macron said of the migrants amassing in areas like Calais: “I hear concerns from groups and rights organisations. We must take several actions: prevent the sustainable establishment of camps, act upstream to dismantle smuggler networks, and strengthen work with the countries of origin to prevent these flows.”

“On the other hand, we have the British, who waver between partnership and provocation. We need to further strengthen collaboration with them. If those [migrants] who want to go to Britain have family there, it has to be part of family reunification. If they are trafficked, we have to break this system,” Macron added.

Family reunification, also known as chain migration, is a large driver of immigration in some European countries, with a 2020 report revealing that in the preceding decade, Sweden had granted 1.2 million residency permits — around one-tenth of its own population — of which 365,000 were for family reunification.

A 2019 report from the German Federal Statistical Office found that the main motivation for 13.5 million people to move to Germany was for family reunification reasons, in 48 per cent of cases.

Germany and Sweden were known to have taken in a very high number of migrants during the 2015 migrant crisis, with Germany taking the highest total number and Sweden the highest number per capita in Europe.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman responded to Macron’s remarks, telling The Guardian on Friday: “We continue to work extremely closely with the French to prevent these crossings. We have been clear that we need to do more, both ourselves and the French, which is why we continue to work with them.

“We’re facing a global migration crisis, choreographed by organised crime groups who put people on boats to make these dangerous crossings. This is a pressing and urgent issue for all of Europe, requiring incredibly close work together. It’s a shared problem so we need shared solutions.”

Sources close to British government ministers told the media earlier this week that some lawmakers believe Macron is using the migrant crisis as a political tool ahead of French presidential elections next year and is part of “Macron’s Brexit punishment strategy”.

London has already signed off on the first instalment of a pledged £54 million to Paris to stop the crossings, amidst tensions with French ministers over the English Channel migrant crisis, with the country’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, blaming Britain’s underground illegal economy as acting as a draw to migrants.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has made similar criticisms, blaming the welfare state for using British taxpayers’ money to generously support illegals and asylum seekers, which in turn acts as a pull for mass migration.

The UK government has not performed well at returning illegal aliens to the last safe country of residence, such as France, with just five being returned who arrived this year.

Prime Minister Johnson is, according to The Times on Saturday, “exasperated” by his own government’s failure to tackle the Channel migrant crisis and has ordered a cross-Whitehall review.

“He’s told ministers to redouble efforts to fix this, no matter how difficult it is. If it looks bad now, it’s going to look much worse in spring when it’s warmer,” a senior government source told the newspaper of record.

However, Johnson’s feeling of exasperation and calls for departmental reviews appear meaningless in the face of continued boat landings, with Mr Farage observing on Saturday morning: “Total chaos in the Channel again today…

“Several beach landings taking place, not all of these young men are being caught.”