Under a revised agreement, the United Kingdom would pay France an additional £8m a year to prevent people from crossing the English Channel in tiny boats.
The funds will be used to improve beach monitoring in France, and British police personnel will be able to witness French patrols.
Over the next five months, the number of French officers monitoring the shore to prevent individuals from leaving will increase from 200 to 300.
PM Rishi Sunak expressed “confidence” that the crossings could be eliminated.
Nevertheless, he cautioned that there was no “single solution” that could “solve” the problem and pledged “even greater cooperation” with France in the coming months.
Daniel Sandford stated that while the enlarged agreement might impede the operations of people smugglers in France, it was unlikely to put an end to their enterprise.
The government is under increasing pressure to curb the record number of crossings of the English Channel this year.
According to official data, more than 40,000 migrants have crossed in small boats so far this year, including 1,800 only this weekend.
By the new deal, signed in Paris by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, the United Kingdom will pay France £63 million this year, up from £55 million last year.
It will include:
- French ports are investing in drones, night vision technology, and CCTV to prevent illegal entry.
- Funding for detecting dogs at ports to identify individuals attempting to enter the United Kingdom in trucks
- investment in French reception and removal centers
Observers from the United Kingdom will be inserted in French control rooms, and observers from France will be embedded in United Kingdom control rooms, to help inform each other’s deployments.
Our correspondent noted that the French administration was unwilling to finalize the agreement until there was a stable government in the United Kingdom.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stated that the United Kingdom desired to “substantially” cut the number of border crossings, but rejected to set a reduction objective.
The announcement made today may move certain police closer to frontline decision-making, but it is unclear how the deal would help the United Kingdom address three serious problems.
To begin with, these new British teams (in additional to those deployed since 2018) will be observers only.
They lack operational authority, so even if more boats and traffickers are intercepted, they cannot dictate to the French what to do with migrants who may attempt to cross the border many times.
Secondly, some critics argue that the United Kingdom should seek a larger continental agreement. As part of Brexit, however, it elected not to participate in the EU’s policy for the management of irregular migrants.
The final significant obstacle lies on the British side of the English Channel. The Home Office’s daily struggle to accommodate individuals who survive the journey over the ocean is directly related to the department’s enormous backlogs and delays in processing others who came before them.
The mayor of Teteghem near the seaside town of Dunkirk, Franck Dhersin, stated that this year’s spike in crossings occurred despite “a lot of police” monitoring the coast.
“We’re talking about 175 kilometers of beaches and dunes where it’s quite easy to conceal,” he told.
Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative representative for Dover, described the latest agreement as “more of the same” and as “far short of what is required.”
“The only solution to this problem is to ensure that the boats are halted in France before they enter the water,” she continued.
This year’s increase in the number of migrants crossing the border has been partially attributed to a significant increase in the number of Albanians making the trek.
12,000 Albanians have landed in the United Kingdom through small boats so far this year, compared to only 50 in 2020.
The agreement follows weeks of criticism leveled at the government for the acute overcrowding at the migrant processing site in Manston, Kent, and its expenditures on lodging for individuals awaiting the completion of their asylum petitions.
The Home Affairs Committee was informed last month that the United Kingdom spends about £7 million per day on hotels for asylum seekers, while only 4% of asylum claims by migrants who crossed the Channel last year have been processed.
According to the most recent government numbers for the year ending in June 2022, there were 103 000 pending asylum applications.
Ms. Braverman has recognized in the past that the system was “broken,” and Mr. Sunak has stated that insufficient asylum requests were being processed.
According to a Freedom of Information request by the Refugee Council, more than 40,000 asylum seekers have waited between one and three years for a decision on their claim.
In addition, 725 migrants have been waiting for more than five years for their claims to be processed.
It was revealed last month that there was serious overcrowding at Manston, with 4,000 people residing there instead of the allotted 1,600.
According to immigration minister Robert Jenrick, the number has since decreased to less than 1,600.
After an outbreak, it was revealed on Saturday that people at the Manston center will be vaccinated against the highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease diphtheria.
