In particular, this agreement means that the British will pay 72.2 million euros in 2022-2023 to France, which will be used in particular to increase the number of police and gendarmes present on French beaches from 800 to 900, from which migrants leave. Britain, according to the joint statement of the two countries.
also readThe real goals of the immigration law
No quantified measure of boat diversions, which the UK wanted according to the cross-Channel press, appears in this document, signed on Monday morning in Paris by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and his British counterpart Suella Braverman.
The deal comes a day after the British Ministry of Defense announced that the number of migrants crossing the Channel since the start of the year had passed a record of 40,000.
In this text, London and Paris first set out to deploy “technological and human resources”, including drones, to the French coast to better detect, monitor and intercept boats.
The two countries also want to collect and use information, especially “from intercepted migrants”, to better dismantle smuggling networks and deter passage through joint work “as early as possible” in cooperation with countries of origin and transit of exiles.
To achieve these three objectives, a dozen actions aimed at “a more integrated and effective approach” have been listed.
For the first time, teams of observers will be deployed on both sides of the Channel to “strengthen mutual understanding” between the two countries, “improve the conduct of investigations of migrants” and “increase the exchange of information”.
The agreement also provides for the funding of “detection dogs” in the ports and the installation of surveillance cameras at the main border crossing points along the coast.
Reception centers for migrants are also to be set up in southern France to deter exiles who take the Mediterranean from returning to Calais and “offer them safe alternatives”.
The agreement was signed almost a year after 27 migrants died on 24 November 2021 when their boat sank off Calais, the worst tragedy on record in the Channel.
More than 200 people have died or gone missing, at sea or on land, trying to reach England from France’s northern coast since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
.