France, U.K. reduce tensions
Leaders to strengthen military ties, address channel migrants
PARIS — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Friday to strengthen the military ties between their countries and step up efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the English Channel, at a summit that signaled a thaw in relations after years of Brexit-induced chill.
Sunak traveled to Paris as part of efforts to mend relations with France and other European Union members following the tensions created by the U.K.’S departure from the European Union. At a cordial joint news conference, Sunak said his meeting with Macron, the first French-british summit since 2018, marked “a new beginning, an entente renewed.”
It was also a chance to signal to Sunak’s Conservative Party and British voters that the government is making progress on its promise to stop migrants reaching the U.K. in small boats.
Britain agreed to pay France more than 500 million euros over the next three years for measures including a detention center for migrants in northern France, a joint command center and more patrols of the French coastline using drones and an additional 500 French police officers.
It’s the latest and biggest measure in years of efforts by the two countries to stop thousands of migrants gathering in northern France and then trying to reach the United Kingdom.
The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France over the years to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt smuggling gangs — all of which have had only a limited impact.
Macron and Sunak said the enforcement had worked, leading to more than 50 smuggling networks being broken up, 500 arrests and 1,300 boats prevented from launching.
Still, more than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, up from 28,000 in 2021 according to an official U.K. count.
The EU’S border agency, Frontex, said 5,600 Channel crossings by asylum-seekers and migrants during the first two months of the year, an 82 percent increase from the same period in 2022. It said the most common countries of origin were Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea.
“There is no one solution to solving this very complicated problem, nor will it be solved overnight,” Sunak acknowledged.