France stops fewer Channel migrants, despite Sunak agreement

Telegraph

2 days ago

France is intercepting fewer Channel migrants than at any time since the first small boats arrived, despite a £480 million funding deal with Britain to help stop crossings, figures suggest.
It has stopped 8,347 asylum seekers from reaching UK waters in small boats so far this year, while 13,167 have so far crossed – meaning that just over 38 per cent have been intercepted.
That is down from an estimated 45 per cent last year, 46.9 per cent in 2023 and 42.4 per cent in 2022, the record year when 45,774 people reached the UK and 33,791 were prevented from doing so by France.
The fall in interceptions comes despite a three-year, £480 million Anglo-French deal agreed by Rishi Sunak in March 2023 to double officers patrolling beaches to 800, set up a joint command centre and a detention centre to stop migrants leaving France.
It coincides with a change in tactics by people-smugglers, who have used 'taxi boats' that remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in northern France. The strategy allows smugglers to evade capture, forcing police to conduct rescue operations rather than arrest the perpetrators.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has also suggested that the number of crossings – up 30 per cent this year on the same point last year – have surged because of the higher number of good weather 'red days' so far.
Ministers believe a series of legal changes in France and Germany will stem the flow of migrants. The French government has amended laws so police can stop boats at sea for the first time. It will enable police to use their own boats in shallow waters to take on people-smugglers carrying migrants in overloaded vessels.
French ministers are also planning to restore the offence of an 'illegal stay' in France, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing. Currently, migrants who attempt to cross the Channel are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch the boat.
Germany, where many migrant boats are stored before being deployed to the French coast, is also tightening its laws to make it easier to prosecute those helping to smuggle migrants to the UK.
Facilitating people-smuggling is not currently technically illegal in Germany if it is to a third country outside the EU, which includes the UK following Brexit. Under the new agreement, Germany has pledged to make the activity a clear criminal offence.
'France is in breach of international law'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
'The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay, and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage.
'Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders.'
However, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'France is in breach of its international law obligations to stop illegal migration. Stopping under 40 per cent of illegal immigrants attempting to cross is pathetic. Even the 40 per cent stopped are simply let go by the French, and they just attempt to cross the next day instead.'
Tony Smith, a former Border Force director general, said: 'The figures on French preventions are disappointing given the investment we are making in resourcing their activities there.
'Promises to introduce maritime interventions even in shallow waters have come to nothing – and allowing boats to continue their journeys even after corpses are removed from what is a potential crime scene is totally unacceptable.
'Also, the French policy of handing out life jackets is a clear signal that they have little interest in preventing asylum seekers from putting their lives at risk by crossing the Channel.
'On the contrary, once the boats have launched, their policy is to do all they can to facilitate their passage to UK waters rather than rescue them and take them back to France, where their safety could be assured.'