Britain will not give way on migrants border deal

Home Office rejects French calls that could lead to influx of asylum seekers

BRITAIN will today reject French calls for the border agreement between the two countries to be renegotiated, calling the suggestion a “complete nonstarter”.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, will meet her French counterpart in Paris today following the warning that Britain will not negotiate changes to the asylum claims process – a move which would increase the pressure on UK borders.

Home Offices sources have made it clear that people in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter.

The meeting follows demands from French politicians to rip up the current arrangements in the wake of Brexit, a threat that experts said could double asylum claims to 90,000 each year.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who hopes to return to power next year, has called for an end to the Le Touquet agreement, which has been in place since 2003 and allows UK border officials based in France to turn away migrants before they reach Britain.

Yesterday Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Calais region, also warned that France could scrap the agreement unless Theresa May agrees to renegotiate the current system in an attempt to ease pressures on his town.

But, a source close to Mrs Rudd told The Daily Telegraph that the Government would resist any pressure to enter into border negotiations. “This is a complete non-starter,” the source said. “The Home Secretary is crystal clear that people in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter. That’s the longheld international norm, and we’re going to stick to it”.

Right-wing politicians in France are angry that the long-held arrangement has led to the creation of migrant camps – most notably the Jungle – where rejected applicants can wait in the hope of sneaking into the UK.

The French government last night insisted it was committed to the current arrangements.

But President François Hollande, who agreed that there would be no change earlier this year, could be unseated in the nation’s 2017 elections.

Mr Sarkozy and Alain Juppé, his rival for the presidential nomination for the centre-Right Republicans, have both suggested that the Le Touquet deal should be scrapped. Mr Bertrand has called for a new “hotspots” system whereby migrants can apply for asylum in Britain without ever leaving France.

Currently, under the Dublin convention, migrants must apply for asylum in the first EU nation they reach.

Any end to the deal would mean that migrants could travel to British shores before they can be denied entry – effectively pushing Europe’s border back on to the British side of the channel.

But last night a Number 10 source claimed that the calls for an end to

co-operation amounted to “electioneering” by French politicians.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We firmly believe in the established principle … that those in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter.

“The French Government have repeatedly made it clear that removing the juxtaposed controls would not be in the interests of France.”

Any renegotiation of the agreement could spell disaster for the UK’s immigration system, experts have warned.

Rob Whiteman, the former boss of the UK Border Agency, told The Daily Telegraph: “Without it [the deal] the number of claims to the UK could more than double to 90,000 plus claims per annum based on the pattern before the deal was negotiated.

“The treaty covering this can be rescinded with notice by either side and so the UK’s bargaining position to maintain the status quo post Brexit is not that strong.”

Yesterday Mr Bertrand told the BBC he wants a “new treatment” for asylum seekers trying to get to Britain. He said: “If the British Government don’t want to open this discussion, we will tell you the Touquet agreement is over.”

Sir Peter Ricketts, the former British ambassador to Paris, said the plan to create hotspots risked attracting many more thousands of migrants to France.

He said: “As soon as you suggested that, there would be a huge magnet pulling thousands and thousands more migrants into Calais to chance their arm, make an asylum claim, hope that they might get to the UK and good luck.”

Ahead of the EU referendum David Cameron warned that politicians on the Right in France would seek to tear up the agreement as a punishment if the UK opted to leave the union.

Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, also called for the UK’s border arrangements to be looked at again but rejected calls to scrap the Le Touquet deal. He will present two reports to the Home Secretary later this week on the need for new sea-based border patrols to stop people smugglers entering the UK and a plan to close the Jungle.