Today 01:07 AM
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260...-crossings
Britain and France have agreed a new three-year deal to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey across the English Channel, according to a French interior ministry roadmap seen by AFP Wednesday. Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement on the coast by more than half to fight irregular migration to Britain -- reaching 1,400 officers by 2029.
Britain will meanwhile provide up to 766 million euros ($897 million) in funding -- though nearly a quarter of that will have strings attached and be paid only if the French measures work. The cross-Channel neighbours have been wrangling for months over the renewal of the Sandhurst treaty, which sets out the UK's financial contribution to French efforts to stop migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing to Britain.
The UK has long accused France of doing too little to prevent would-be asylum seekers -- a hot-button issue in British politics -- from setting off from French shores, with smugglers and migrants taking ever-greater risks to avoid detection. As a result, London insisted it would only renew the Sandhurst treaty -- first signed in 2018, extended in 2023 and set to expire this year -- if it could impose conditions on how British taxpayers' money is used by the French government.
According to the French ministry roadmap, if the new measures do not deliver "sufficient results, based on a joint annual assessment, the funding will be redirected to new actions". Even if the conditional portion is not paid, however, the UK's core contribution of 580 million euros still represents a 40-million-euro hike on what it paid under the last treaty.
French interior minister Laurent Nunez and his UK counterpart Shabana Mahmood are set to lay out further details of the plan on Thursday while on a visit to a building site of an accommodation centre for people set to be deported from France at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk.
Britain and France have agreed a new three-year deal to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey across the English Channel, according to a French interior ministry roadmap seen by AFP Wednesday. Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement on the coast by more than half to fight irregular migration to Britain -- reaching 1,400 officers by 2029.
Britain will meanwhile provide up to 766 million euros ($897 million) in funding -- though nearly a quarter of that will have strings attached and be paid only if the French measures work. The cross-Channel neighbours have been wrangling for months over the renewal of the Sandhurst treaty, which sets out the UK's financial contribution to French efforts to stop migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing to Britain.
The UK has long accused France of doing too little to prevent would-be asylum seekers -- a hot-button issue in British politics -- from setting off from French shores, with smugglers and migrants taking ever-greater risks to avoid detection. As a result, London insisted it would only renew the Sandhurst treaty -- first signed in 2018, extended in 2023 and set to expire this year -- if it could impose conditions on how British taxpayers' money is used by the French government.
According to the French ministry roadmap, if the new measures do not deliver "sufficient results, based on a joint annual assessment, the funding will be redirected to new actions". Even if the conditional portion is not paid, however, the UK's core contribution of 580 million euros still represents a 40-million-euro hike on what it paid under the last treaty.
French interior minister Laurent Nunez and his UK counterpart Shabana Mahmood are set to lay out further details of the plan on Thursday while on a visit to a building site of an accommodation centre for people set to be deported from France at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk.