UK-France migrant small boats deal explained

The UK and France have agreed to a ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal that will see failed asylum seekers returned to France for the first time since Brexit.

As part of what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a “groundbreaking” agreement, a number of migrants already in the UK will be sent back to France. In exchange, the UK will accept an equal number of migrants from France.

The prime minister said the UK will only receive “genuine asylum seekers” from the French and the scheme will only be open to migrants who have not previously tried to cross illegally on a small boat.

Pilot scheme

But the scheme, which is being pitched as a “pilot”, will reportedly be limited to 50 migrants per week. No quota at all is specified in the text of the joint agreement.

The number of people trying to cross the English Channel was close to 20,000 in the first six months of this year.

Over the course of just one day last week, 517 migrants successfully made it across in small boats, according to Home Office figures.

But Keir Starmer hopes that the new scheme will act as a signal to those desperately trying to get to the UK on overcrowded and often unsafe dinghies that their efforts are in vain.

Crisis

The prime minister said that the UK and France are fighting what he called a “crisis of law, security, humanity and fairness”.

And they are up against a “multi-billion-pound enterprise run by criminal gangs”.

But there is scepticism as to whether such a small-scale returns scheme will put migrants off, or whether it will break the business model of the criminal networks.

“The numbers, if successful, will ramp up,” Starmer promised.

The deal was reached as the culmination of a three-day visit to the UK by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Verification

Despite Starmer’s promise that the scheme will be up and running “within weeks”, Macron said that the agreement was subject to a “legal verification” by the European Union.

A European Commission spokesperson said they were “working with France and the UK, as well as other EU member states, to support solutions that are compatible with the spirit and the letter of EU law”.

Five EU member states, including Italy, Greece and Spain, have expressed concerns that migrants returned to France might subsequently end up on their doorsteps.

“Such an initiative raises serious concerns for us, both procedurally and in terms of potential implications for other member states, particularly those of first entry,” they complained in a letter to the European Commission last week.

Under current EU rules, migrants should be sent back to the country where they entered the European Union, meaning Mediterranean countries could end up bearing the brunt.

According to the French government, one third of all the migrants illegally entering the European Union are destined for northern France and ultimately the UK.

France agreed to the exchange scheme because it wants the UK to address the “pull factors” that seem to make Britain a magnet for migrants.

For its part, Britain wants France to do much more to stop the migrants from getting on boats in the first place.

Gendarmes

France already has more than 1,200 gendarmes permanently stationed along the coast to try and prevent the crossings.

Keir Starmer said that France has now agreed to instruct its police officers to enter shallow waters to pursue migrant smugglers.

That’s something French police have so far mainly resisted.

“If we go in the water, there’s a risk of making people fall off the boats. Police might fall in with all their kit on. They’re not trained lifeguards,” Marc Allegre, from the police union, Unite SGP, told Channel 4 News.

France and the UK have been trying to get a grip on the migrant problem for years. Previous attempts have failed because the smugglers have simply exploited a new weakness.

They hope that this latest deal will tighten the noose.

Both sides know that so long as migrants keep coming, the smugglers will find a way.

Watch more here:

UK and France hail ‘groundbreaking’ deal made to return migrants
‘I left my country to save my life’ says migrant who made illegal crossing
Labour MP ‘confident’ they can make small boat plan work with France