From Saturday, December 18th, travellers from Britain to France will need “compelling reasons” to enter the country, following the increase of Omicron cases in the UK, despite the UK scrapping its own ‘Red List’ of travel restrictions.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told French media on Wednesday that France is going to take “new measures with the United Kingdom”, which includes “even more drastic border controls”, such as banning entry in most cases.
The government of France confirmed in a statement that “from this Saturday at midnight”, travellers must have a “compelling reason to go to or come from the United Kingdom, for unvaccinated people as well as vaccinated people. Travel for tourism or professional reasons will not be allowed.” However, French citizens, their spouses, and children will be exempt from the rules.
Meanwhile, Britain has cleared its own Red List of countries involving the highest entry restrictions for travellers after the government concluded that the system had become “less effective in slowing the incursion” of the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus from abroad.
France imposing new border restrictions is somewhat ironic, given that the country has been persistently reluctant to collaborate with the UK’s request to work on a joint policy that would strengthen both Britain’s and France’s borders against illegal migration.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently rejected a public proposal from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help stop the illegal Channel crossings, which included setting up “joint or reciprocal maritime patrols” in both French and British waters.
Over 23,500 migrants have made the illegal crossing from France to Britain so far this year, with France doing little to stem the tide, even though Britain has paid tens of millions of pounds to France to properly police their borders.
Despite France’s latest declaration of strengthening their border against British citizens, there have been no major movements to stop migrant crossings with almost 700 crossing in one day alone in November and a record-breaking 1,185 on another day that month.
France has also been accused of using its military vessels to escort migrant boats into British waters.
In recent weeks the steady stream of migrant arrivals has fallen off the front pages as the news media turns its attention again to the government’s lockdowns. However, unofficial reports from local residents claim that the landings are still ongoing, according to accounts seen by Breitbart London.
The lack of reporting follows the horrific revelation that a migrant boat capsized in the English Channel killing at least 27 people off the coast of France, including five women and a young girl.
There have also been claims that illegal migrants are unaware of how they are being smuggled into Britain and some are forced by people smugglers onto unsafe inflatable dinghies and boats at knife or gunpoint following payment of around £3,000.
The British asylum system has been overwhelmed by the continuous influx of migrants and as a result, some of the facilities used to house illegal migrants have been branded “inadequate” by prison inspectors.
A migrant facility at Tug Haven in Kent was criticised for keeping migrant families in tents for over 24 hours while they were being processed.
Additionally, the inspector’s report mentioned: “Inspectors were concerned by inadequate follow-up care for two women who said they had been raped and another who said she had been sold into domestic servitude”.
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