Top French politicians slam UK for being too soft on asylum seekers because of free hotel rooms and job opportunities
SCATHING French politicians have blasted Britain as a magnet for migrants because of free hotel rooms and job opportunities.
Top public figures on the other side of the Channel say the UK is too soft on asylum seekers.
Yesterday, it emerged nearly 16,000 were given the right to take jobs here in care, construction and agriculture.
Asylum seekers are allowed to work in Britain in occupations with serious worker shortages and get 80 per cent of the average wage.
Some 19,231 applied for work permits in 2022 and 15,706 applicants were granted by the Home Office.
Thousands more are said to work cash-in-hand jobs without giving up benefits.
And French senior public figures told The Sun on Sunday migrants were taking advantage of the UK — as well as ruining coastal towns in northern France by using them as a launchpad to cross the Channel.
Paulette Julien-Peuvion, mayor of Neufchatel-Hardelot, near Calais, said: “Your government is a soft touch.
“To put the migrants in hotels only encourages people to make the crossing.
“Registered asylum seekers [in France] get a small sum only, but they have been told they can work in England even if they have no papers.”
The mayor, whose town is twinned with Otford, Kent, added: “People ask me, ‘What are you going to do to stop this?’. I say, ‘I don’t know because the migrants don’t want to stay here, they want to go to England’.”
Sudanese migrant Mostafa Ali is sleeping rough in Pas-de-Calais. If he makes it here, he would be put up in a hotel or a containment site such as the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset.
Mostafa, 24, said: “You can make good money washing cars and working in kitchens and it’s very easy to get a job in the UK.”
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage slammed the jobs stats, telling the Telegraph: “This is a disaster. Once the traffickers can advertise jobs and free board, even more will want to come.”
Last weekend, five migrants died when a boat capsized off the French coastal town of Wimereux.
Mayor Jean-Luc Dubaële blamed the UK Government for offering “monts et merveilles” — a French expression meaning they are promised the world.