Sunak seeks deal to increase French beach patrols amid new legal push on migrants
RISHI SUNAK is seeking a “substantial” increase in beach patrols to stop migrants leaving France as he prepares to unveil laws to detain and remove anyone who arrives in the UK illegally.
The Prime Minister hopes to seal a deal to put more officers on French beaches at a summit on Friday with President Emmanuel Macron in France.
Officials have been working to build on last November’s £63million agreement under which the UK paid towards a 40 per cent increase in French officers as well as surveillance equipment.
Doubling the numbers of migrants prevented from leaving the beaches to 80 or 90 per cent would smash the people smugglers’ economic model.
Ahead of the summit, which both Mr Sunak and Suella Braverman will attend, they will unveil a bill to combat illegal migration which it is claimed will “pull no punches” and go further than any other government in pushing the boundaries of what is possible within the UK’s international obligations.
The legislation will enact Mr Sunak’s pledge to swiftly return anyone who arrives in the UK illegally either to their home country or to a safe country where their claim will be considered.
As revealed by The Telegraph, it will place a legal duty on the Home Secretary, Mrs Braverman, to deport illegal migrants as soon as practicable.
Ministers have also been considering plans to disapply parts of the human rights act so that Channel migrants could not use it to challenge their removal. Instead, they would have to take their case to Strasbourg where any final judgment would likely take years.
Other options include only allowing appeals once migrants have been removed from the UK, limiting judicial reviews to factual issues.
A Government source said: “Successive governments have talked a good game but ultimately pulled their punches – and the small boats have just kept coming.
“We are going to be taking decisions no other government has been willing to take. We have to make it clear that coming here illegally is not an option and you will be removed if you try.”
Government sources indicated that the small boats deal with France has yet to be finalised but suggested that the UK was hoping for a “substantial” increase in the number of officers patrolling the beaches.