UK and France to clinch new joint declaration on migrants
London, The Gulf Observer: Home Secretary Suella Braverman will travel to Paris, France to sign a new joint declaration with French officials to ramp up efforts to stop migrant crossings in the Channel.
The home secretary will sign the agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday morning.
According to the Financial Times, the agreement will significantly increase the 200 French officers and volunteers who operate on Channel beaches and encourage France to aim for a higher proportion of migrants prevented from leaving.
It will also include a rise in payments from London to Paris and a closer relationship between the two countries’ border policing teams, the newspaper reported.
The UK and France have been in talks for several months over the renewal of longstanding arrangements to police the Channel.
The Financial Times reports that the annual amount the UK pays to France is expected to increase to €72m (£63m) in 2022 to 2023, from €62.7m (£54.8m) for 2021 to 2022.
The UK government has sent a total of €200m (£174.8m) to Paris to police the border since 2018, while France spends around €250m (£218.6m) every year dealing with all matters related to the British border.
French officials said the number of officers patrolling to stop small boat crossings will increase from 200 to 300 by mid-2023 under the new agreement, the newspaper reported, with the UK covering additional monitoring costs.
It added that the deal also plans for a French operations centre to be reinforced, while British border force officers will be present as observers for the first time, all while respecting France’s sovereignty.
On Friday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and his French counterpart Catherine Colonna issued a statement stressing the “urgency of tackling all forms of illegal migration”.
