EMMANUEL Macron is demanding Britain thrashes out a new asylum pact with the EU during trade talks over fears Brexit will spark another Calais crisis.
The French President has lobbied for a new clause in Michel Barnier’s mandate that links a deal on deportations to the wider future relationship.
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He fears the failure to secure an agreement would generate a “pull factor” for migrants trying to cross the Channel who will camp out on the French coast.
As an EU member Britain was part of the Dublin Regulation, which allows countries to return asylum seekers back to where they arrived from.
But the law ceases to apply when we leave the transition, meaning current cooperation will fall away unless a new deal is struck.
A leaked draft of the bloc’s negotiating mandate, seen by The Sun, includes the fresh proposal for “cooperation regarding asylum policy”.
One EU diplomatic source said: “Once Dublin falls away there could be a pull factor for more people to try to cross the Channel into the UK.
“It’s mostly in the UK’s interest to come to an agreement.”
A second EU diplomat added that some capitals see Britain’s need for a deal on asylum as leverage in the talks.
They said: “The UK transfers lots of asylum seekers to EU countries. After Brexit it will be responsible for its own influx.
“Once the Dublin mechanism stops there will be no legal basis for transfers until a new deal is reached.”
In 2018 the UK submitted 5,510 requests for other Member States – mostly Italy, Germany, and France – to take back asylum seekers.
But it received just 1,940 demands from fellow countries to take in refugees, largely on grounds of family reunification.
