France wants more UK money to intercept small boats
France will demand more money from Britain to tackle small-boat crossings as police are due to start intercepting migrants in shallow water from next month.
French authorities have until now resisted entering the Channel to stop dinghies leaving beaches for Britain, despite agreeing in February to change the law which prevented them from doing so.
The French government is now prepared to change the rules but is expected to tell Britain it needs more money to deploy extra officers and drones to be able to continue policing the shores.
French and British officials are currently at the start of negotiating a new deal on tackling Channel crossings. They believe it is key that part of the work is financed by Britain, and are expected to ask for more money in order to deploy more officers and equipment such as drones.
In particular, officials are expected to push for extra funding for the Compagnie de Marche, a special policing unit with elite public order powers. The unit was inspired by policing during the Paris Olympics and is designed to tackle the increase in violence on French beaches.
It is understood the French hope a deal can be signed in the coming months. A government source said the French may be 'pitch-rolling for more money' but that talks were in the early stages.
The last agreement, signed in 2023 by Rishi Sunak, was due to expire next year. However, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, agreed to extend it to 2027 on the condition France builds a long-promised detention centre.
Britain has paid France £800 million since 2015 to curb small-boat crossings but the numbers of people arriving on Britain's shores has continued to rise.
So far this year almost 15,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats — up 42 per cent on this time last year and a 95 per cent rise from the same point in 2023.
The 2023 agreement saw Britain pay France £480 million to stop the crossings, but not all of that has been spent.
It is expected France will push for a similar amount if not more under any new deal. President Macron is drafting the new strategy to present to the UK during his forthcoming state visit to Britain in July.
Some 1,195 migrants crossed the Channel in 19 small boats on Saturday
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
British officials had become increasingly frustrated at the pace of change and Cooper had pushed the French interior minister to act 'swiftly'.
The home secretary said this week it was 'disgraceful' that 1,195 people crossed the Channel in 19 small boats on Saturday. French authorities rescued 184 people: however, current guidelines prevent officers from intervening offshore unless it is to rescue passengers in distress.
It means officers can stop boats leaving the beach by puncturing them but may do nothing once they are in the water unless migrants call for help, which has led to footage of gendarmes looking on from the beach as people attempting to reach the UK ran into the water and climbed onboard small boats.
John Healey, the defence secretary, previously said it was a 'really big problem' that the French authorities were unable to intervene to intercept the boats.
However, it is hoped that the rule change will allow them to intercept so-called taxi boats, which are launched inland and then pick up migrants who have waded waist-deep into the water.
French officials insist they are stopping migrants crossing the Channel and that French police are subject to dangerous confrontations with migrants who are determined to make the crossing. In one incident, police were covered in petrol and migrants threatened to set them alight.
They believe there are pull factors which make Britain attractive for migrants, and pointed to global conflicts and climate change as reasons for increasing numbers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
At least three killed in Russia's ‘most powerful' strike on Ukraine's second city – Russia-Ukraine war live
Update: Date: 2025-06-07T06:54:31.000Z Title: Mayor: Kharkiv 'currently experiencing' most powerful attack since start of the war Content: More now on the overnight attacks on Kharkiv, which we've learned also reportedly injured a one-and-a-half -month-old baby. The mayor of the city, which is Ukraine's second largest, said the attack was Russia's biggest . 'Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,' Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messenger early on Saturday. Dozens of explosions were heard in the city through the night and Russian troops were striking simultaneously with missiles, drones and guided aerial bombs, he said. Multi-storey and private residential buildings, educational and infrastructure facilities were attacked, he added. Update: Date: 2025-06-07T06:48:34.000Z Title: Opening summary Content: Welcome to our coverage of the ongoing war in Ukraine, following Russia's invasion in February 2022. Here's what we're covering following the latest developments. Russian strikes on the Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Kharkiv early on Saturday killed at least five people, officials said. A strike on a high-rise building in Kherson killed a couple, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional governor. Russia hit Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, with missiles, Shahed drones and guided bombs before dawn on Saturday, killing three people in what the mayor, Igor Terekhov, described as the 'most powerful attack' there since the start of the war. Seventeen people were wounded. One woman was pulled alive from the rubble of a high-rise building. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia had ''responded' to its destroyed aircraft … by attacking civilians in Ukraine … Multi-storey buildings hit. Energy infrastructure damaged.' Ukrainian spies last weekend destroyed Russian strategic bomber aircraft on the ground using quadcopter drones hidden on top of trucks in Operation Spiderweb. Russia's missile and drone barrage against Kyiv on Friday killed at least seven people, Ukrainian officials said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said three emergency workers who went to a bomb site were 'killed in a repeat Russian strike'. Two died in an attack on the northern city of Chernihiv and at two more in the north-western city of Lutsk. Eighty people were injured in attacks across Ukraine on Friday.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Deported notorious migrant dubbed 'Maryland man' is on his way BACK to America from El Salvador prison
A migrant man who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador has returned to the US. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was brought back to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants around the US. The Trump administration initially accepted it had made a mistake in deporting Abrego Garcia, a father-of-three who arrived in the US illegally more than a decade ago. On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Abrego Garcia had landed 'to face justice' over allegations of people smuggling and conspiracy to commit smuggling. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also championed his return, saying it proved the 'unhinged Democrat Party' was wrong about Abrego Garcia, who liberals had dubbed a ' Maryland father-of-three'. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador after being accused of being an MS-13 gang member. The deportation went ahead despite a court order forbidding his return which claimed he was at risk of persecution by the gang. Prior to this he had several brushes with the law in the US over the years, although none resulted in arrest or conviction. After initially ignoring a court order to facilitate his repatriation to the US, Bondi announced that Abrego Garcia has been hauled back to America to face charges stemming from one of these encounters. . @AGPamBondi announces Kilmar Abrego Garcia "has landed in the United States to face justice" on charges of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. "Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador." — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 6, 2025 A federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia over claims he participated in a years- long operation trafficking people through the Texas border. Sources told ABC News that amongst those allegedly transported were members of the infamous Salvadoran gang MS-13. The conspiracy is said to have spanned nearly ten years and involved the transportation of thousands of migrants from Mexico and Central America. He is expected to be prosecuted and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country at the conclusion of the case, officials said. The investigation into the charges started after federal authorities started probing a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, source said. He was stopped with eight people in his car and told officers he was driving them from Texas to Maryland for a construction job. The exchange led the officer to, 'suspect this was a human trafficking incident', according to a report produced at the time. But Abrego Garcia was let go with out any arrest or charge, despite having an expired license, per the document. Abrego Garcia was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison after the administration claimed he was a member of MS-13. Something he and his family have denied. President Donald Trump had repeatedly maintained in an interview with ABC's Terry Moran that Abrego Garcia has M-S-1-3 tattooed on his hand. Trump had posted multiple times showing knuckle tattoos, but Moran told him the actual M-S-1-3 letters and numbers had simply been photoshopped onto the image above Abrego Garcia's actual tattoos as a code to decipher them. His deportation saga began when he was pulled over by immigration officers on March 12 and was told his immigration status had changed. Within days he was on a plane to El Salvador and his family recognized him in CECOT from media images which showed off distinctive tattoos on his arm. Abrego Garcia was granted 'withholding of removal' status in 2019 after a judge determined his claims that he would be persecuted if he returned to El Salvador were legitimate. President Trump had said that he could retrieve Abrego Garcia with one phone call to El Salvador's president, but refused to do it. Abrego Garcia´s American wife sued over his deportation, and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered his return on April 4. The Supreme Court ruled on April 10 that the administration must work to bring him back. Late last month the administration asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, arguing the court lacked jurisdiction because he was no longer in the US. Attorneys for the administration have also argued that information about returning Abrego Garcia is protected under state secrets privilege. U.S. attorneys said releasing such details in open court - or even to the judge in private - would jeopardize national security by revealing sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Many filings in the case have been sealed. The case has raised questions about whether due process was followed and highlighted the extent to which the White House is trying to exert control over the courts to bolster its immigration policy. US Senator Chris Van Hollen, who represents Maryland, had traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia. In a statement on Friday, he said: 'For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. 'Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process afforded to everyone in the United States. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all. 'The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' In a statement about his return, Abrego Garcia's attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said: 'From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. 'Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life. We're not just fighting for Kilmar - we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. 'Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us -- if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution.' Abrego Garcia's wife has stood by him throughout the saga, despite previously filing a report of domestic abuse against her husband. The Salvadoran was never charged over the report which was later retracted.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church 's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
