Frontier deal
United Kingdom, France agree new measures for border
France is to increase the number of police patrolling its coastline and will deploy additional surveillance measures to stop people trying to cross the English Channel to reach the United Kingdom.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the signing of a deal on Tuesday that will see the UK pay France 54 million pounds ($73.6 million) toward new measures, doubling coastal police deployment for the second time in a year, and widening the area covered to include the coastline between Boulogne and Dunkirk, and also into the northwest around Dieppe.
On Monday, 430 migrants reached the UK, which the Independent news site reported has taken this year’s current total to at least 8,452, which is already more than in all of 2020.
That 2020 figure was in itself four times 2019’s number, but despite this, and in spite of the attention drawn by the sight of boats crossing the Channel, Britain still has one of the lowest number of asylum claims in Europe.
Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees showed that asylum applications in the UK fell to 29,456 in 2020.
According to World Bank figures, Britain had just over 132,000 refugees in 2020, compared to 1.2 million in Germany, 436,000 in France and 248,000 in Sweden.
“Illegal immigration is driven by serious organized criminals and people smugglers,” Patel said.
“The public are rightly angry that small boats are arriving on our shores, facilitated by appalling criminal gangs who profit from human misery, and put lives at risk.”
‘Empty words’
The agreement also included what is described as a plan for a “smart border” along the coast, but Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow home secretary from the opposition Labour Party, said it was just “yet more empty words” from the government.
“As long ago August 2020, ministers promised a new ‘joint operational plan’ with France would be in place ‘in the coming days’,” he said. “Yet almost a year later, they are still making empty promises, letting down victims, and allowing criminals to continue their evil trade.”
New legislation, known as the Nationality and Borders Bill, will make it a crime to knowingly arrive in the UK without permission, and is currently being considered by Parliament.
The government hopes this will deter people from attempting to cross the border, but the Refugee Action charity called the plans “extreme and nasty”.
Pierre-Henri Dumont, the French parliamentary member for the port of Calais, was also unconvinced by what real difference the latest announcement would make.
“We’ve seen it before,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “Having more money, having more police officers, having more controls, will not prevent people to succeed in these crossing attempts. We have too many kilometers of shore to monitor.”