The UK and French governments signed a new multimillion-euro deal on Thursday aimed at reducing the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, with increased police patrols and enhanced surveillance in northern France.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez formally endorsed the three-year agreement during a joint visit to the Dunkirk region.
Mahmood praised the new deal as providing “the right mix of skills and capabilities that we know will work on the beaches in order to reduce the crossings.”
Nuñez said that it will help in “combating illegal immigration networks, human trafficking networks, which are obviously extremely harmful.”
Under the agreement, the UK will provide 500 million pounds ($675 million) to strengthen measures in northern France, with an additional 160 million pounds ($216 million) depending on the success of new tactics to curb Channel crossings. If those efforts fail, the additional funding will be halted after one year, the UK Home Office said.
The plan aims at increasing the number of officers deployed on the ground from 907 now to 1,392 for the 2026—2029 period, along with the creation of an additional police unit dedicated to combating irregular migration, funded by France, the French Interior Ministry said.
It will also include the deployment of new technologies aimed at reducing departures of “taxi boats,” the term authorities use for small motorized vessels that are typically inflatable and used by smugglers to pick up migrants along long stretches of the northern French coast.
Unlike boats that migrants carry into the water themselves, “taxi boats” typically set off largely empty from secluded coastal areas and pick up migrants at prearranged meeting points on beaches.
The deal also expands surveillance capabilities through drones, helicopters and electronic monitoring, to better prevent crossing attempts.
“Our work with the French has already stopped tens of thousands of crossings and this government has deported or returned nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
Since taking office nearly two years ago, Starmer’s center-left Labour government has pushed through a series of policies that it hopes will sharply reduce immigration.
Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue in the UK over recent years. Anger at the seeming inability of successive governments to get a handle on the issue has been behind a series of demonstrations and riots over the past few years and fueled the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party, which has been leading in opinion polls for more than a year and is predicted to make sweeping gains in a raft of elections on May 7. (JapanToday)
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