France's President Emmanuel Macron and UK interior minister Priti Patel have reignited a war of words over which nation is responsible for desperate migrants drowning in the Channel between the two nations. 

Macron blamed the UK government for recent deaths in an interview with a newspaper in northern France, where many migrants come before attempting crossings at sea. 

"The moral responsibility for those who perish at sea does not lie with France, but with this British refusal to respond," he told La Voix Du Nord (The Voice of the North).

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He further accused the UK government of "hypocrisy" over liberal labor laws which he argued entice migrants to the UK, and the new Nationality and Borders law which, if passed by parliament, will criminalize migrants as well as people-smugglers.

"We are hostages to an absurd and inhuman situation," Macron added.

But in a submission to a UK parliamentary committee, UK minister Patel said Macron is "absolutely wrong."

Patel defended her policy – which is seen as a key pillar of her aims at the Home Office – and said alternative ideas to allow refugees to apply for UK asylum in northern France were "not viable." 

"That proposal will effectively make France a big magnet for more migrants to come," she claimed to the Home Affairs select committee.

"I don't know how the French public feel about that... they have enough problems with camps and criminality and all sorts of issues," Patel added.