U.K. will pay France € 72.2 million under pledge to stop migrants from crossing the English Channel
The United Kingdom (U.K.) will pay France € 72.2 million (U.S. $ 75 million) in 2022-2023, nearly € 10 million (U.S. $ 10.3 million) more than under an existing deal, to stop migrants from crossing the English Channel.
The agreement was signed by the Minister of Interior of France – Gerald Darmanin and Home Secretary of the United Kingdom (U.K.) – Suella Braverman. France will increase its security presence by 40% across sea access points on the coast.
The agreement includes 350 more gendarmes and police guarding beaches in Calais and Dunkirk, as well as more use of drones and night vision equipment to help officers detect crossings. However, no specific target for boat interceptions was included in the agreement.
The agreement contains proposals to fight crime across migration routes, with both the countries agreeing that their countries would gather information from intercepted asylum seekers to help tackle smuggling networks.
Taking it to twitter, Braverman tweeted,
Today, I signed an agreement with my friend @GDarmanin in Paris to ramp up our co-ordination to tackle illegal immigration. Our new deal will see UK officers embedded in French operations for the first time & a 40% increase in French officers patrolling in northern France 1/2 pic.twitter.com/h5a9rRdW1u
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 14, 2022
The Prime Minister of the U.K. – Rishi Sunak said the deal would mean “a 40-percent increase in the number of patrols happening, and for the first time, British officials embedded in French operations to strengthen coordination and the effectiveness of our operations.”
The U.K. receives fewer asylum seekers than many European nations, including Italy, France and Germany, but thousands of people from around the world travel to Northern France each year in hopes of crossing the English Channel. Some migrants want to reach the U.K. because they have friends or family there, others because they speak English or because they think they will be able to find work there.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people trying to cross the English Channel in dinghies and other small craft as authorities clamp down on other routes such as stowing away on buses. More than 40,000 people have made the hazardous journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes so far this year, up from 28,000 in all of 2021 and 8,500 in 2020. 27 migrants died in November 2022 when a packed smuggling boat collapsed.
The U.K. and France have long wrangled over how to stop the people-smuggling gangs that organise the journeys. The U.K. has announced a controversial plan to send people who arrive in small boats on a one-way journey to Rwanda – a plan it says will deter people from crossing the English Channel and break the business model of smuggling gangs.
