UK, France grapple with migrant surge

LONDON, Sept 8, (AP): Britain’s interior minister was meeting her French counterpart on Wednesday, as the UK pressed France to do more to stop a surge in the number of migrants risking crossings of the English Channel in small boats.

Thousands of migrants have landed on beaches in southeast England in recent days of calm, summery weather, with 785 arriving on Monday alone, according to Britain’s Home Office. More than 12,000 have made the crossing this year, according to a count by Britain’s Press Association news agency. In 2020, about 8,500 people made the journey, and several died in the attempt.

Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to reach Britain, either by stowing away in trucks or on ferries, or - increasingly since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted international travel - in dinghies and other small boats organized by people smugglers.

The British and French governments have worked for years to stop the journeys, without much success. Earlier this year, Britain agreed to give France 54 million pounds ($74 million, 63 million euros) to help fund a doubling of the number of police patrolling French beaches.

The money has not yet been paid, and UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has suggested she could withhold it if France does not do more to stop the boats departing. She is due to meet French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin during a two-day G-7 interior ministers’ meeting in London that begins Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said stopping the crossings depended largely on the French.

“We depend to a large extent on what the French are doing, but clearly as time goes on and this problem continues we are going to have to make sure that we use every possible tactic at our disposal to stop what I think is a vile trade and a manipulation of people’s hopes,” he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Refugee charities said the tough talk from the British government was pointless, and urged the government to make it easier for asylum seekers to come to the UK safely.

Underscores

Meanwhile, the commander of the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth said Tuesday that the first port call in Japan by his strike group underscores Britain’s aim to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific region and its commitment to further strengthen its partnership with Japan.

The visit comes as Japan is seeking to expand its military cooperation beyond its traditional alliance with the United States as China’s navy expands and increasingly presses its territorial claims.

The Queen Elizabeth participated in a joint exercise with warships from the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan before arriving in Yokosuka on Saturday. The exercise was part of efforts to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific” vision led by Washington and Tokyo.

The strike group’s visit “embodies (Britain’s) tilt to the Indo-Pacific, marks a return to UK’s enduring presence in the region,” its commander, Commodore Steve Moorhouse, said in an online news conference. It demonstrates “the UK’s commitment to investing in our partnership with Japan,” he said.

Moorhouse said they were “escorted and shadowed by Chinese units, which is as expected” during the joint exercise, but the encounter with China’s navy was “safe and professional.”

British Ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom said the Indo-Pacific tilt is not only about security.

“We recognize the shift in world power and economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region and are adapting our posture,” she said at the same news conference. “We also want to work with the Indo-Pacific region to address global challenges” such as the pandemic and climate change.

Japan has become increasingly worried about China’s growing military influence in the region as well as Beijing’s escalating tensions with Taiwan and rivalry with the United States. Japan has repeatedly protested to China over its increased activity near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, who visited Yokosuka on Monday and met with Moorhouse onboard the Queen Elizabeth, said the attention paid by Britain and other countries in Europe to China’s “unilateral” attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas contributes to peace and stability in the region.