In the coming hours, France will host a European meeting to discuss ways to stop migrants crossing into the UK on boats, but Britain itself will be absent.
France is angry with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for criticizing its handling of the situation. The dispute escalated after 27 migrants drowned a few days ago, while trying to make their way from France into Britain through the Channel. Johnson wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron and published in on Twitter before the French leader had even received it. Now ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are set to address the crisis in the northern French port of Calais this afternoon. Top on the agenda will be how to tackle human smugglers that provide boats to migrants to cross the narrow waterway.