U.K. Home Secretary will meet her French counterpart on the sidelines of a G7 Ministers meeting in London
The Home Secretary of United Kingdom (U.K.) – Priti Patel and Interior Minister of U.K. – Gérald Darmanin are set to meet their French counterpart today, i.e., Wednesday, September 8, 2021, over the rising number of migrants crossing the English Channel.
The discussion will be held on the sidelines of a G7 Ministers meeting in London. Patel warned U.K. could withhold £ 54.2 million it had promised to pay France to help deal with the problem, unless more boats are intercepted.
The latest crossings come after the weather got settled. A total of 785 people crossed the Channel on Monday, i.e., September 8, 2021, in 27 boats while French authorities stopped 378 people from making the crossing. With this, the total number of migrants crossing the English Channel this year has reached 13,300 in 535 boats. The latest crossings come after the weather looks settled.
Taking it to twitter, Patel tweeted,
Today I welcomed Interior Ministers from the G7 nations to the UK. Throughout this week I will be leading discussions with them on…
— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) September 7, 2021
✅ Tackling illegal migration
✅ Counter terrorism
✅ Keeping the public safe online pic.twitter.com/3PfYDnwqla
In July 2021, U.K. had agreed to pay France for steeping up patrols along the French coast in order to deter crossings. As per the deal, France will double the number of police patrolling France’s beaches, improve intelligence sharing and introduces better technology to target the gangs who organise the crossings.
The U.K. Prime Minister’s Spokesman has also said that U.K. and France are working on the implementation of the deal and that significant funding provided in November had already led to increased patrols and enhanced intelligence. In November 2020, U.K. and France signed a £ 28.2 million to limit crossings but that failed terribly.
The fact is French have got 300 to 400 kilometres of shore to monitor every day and every night and it’s quite impossible to have police officers every 100 metres because of the length of the shore.
The migrants that are found in U.K. national waters, are usually brought to a British Port. If they are in international waters, the U.K. works with French authorities to decide where to take them. Each country has search-and-rescue zones. As per an E.U. law called Dublin III allows asylum seekers to be transferred back to the first member state they were proven to have entered. However, U.K is no longer a part of E.U. and has not agreed a new scheme to replace it.
