Treaty to deal with migrants

– French president Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May will announce a new treaty on how to handle migrants hoping to head to Britain, the French presidency said yesterday.

The treaty, set to be announced at a summit in London today, will “complete the Le Touquet accord”, Macron’s office said in reference to a 2003 deal that effectively put Britain’s border in northern France.

The details are “still being finalised”, the French presidency said.

The treaty will include measures on how to manage unaccompanied minors, and Britain will make a “major” financial contribution.

The original text, which came into force in February 2004, implemented joint controls at coastal ports in both countries as Britain, which is not part of Europe’s Schengen visa-free zone, looked to bolster efforts to keep migrants out.

Later accords led to Britain financing some of the controls and security operations in Calais, just across the English Channel from its own port in Dover.

Calais has long been a sore point in French-British relations, and Macron yesterday called for better cooperation in managing the border with Britain ahead of his first trip to London as president.

Migrants hoping to stow away on trucks bound for Britain have long been drawn to France’s northern coast, with the squalid Jungle camp near Calais once housing about 10 000 people before it was bulldozed by the government in late 2016.

Hundreds of migrants remain, with police routinely breaking up makeshift camps of people hoping to head to Britain, a favoured destination for Afghans and east Africans. –