Britain, France Agree New £478 Million Deal to Tackle Illegal Immigration

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron during a joint press conference at Elysee Palace, in Paris, on March 10, 2023. (Kin Cheung/PA Media)

The UK will pay France nearly half a billion pounds over the next three years to step up efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

Following a summit with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Friday, Sunak said the UK has agreed to send Paris £478 million ($577 million) to fund a new detention centre in France and the hiring of hundreds of extra French law enforcement officers.

This is the first time the UK has helped fund a detention centre in France to enhance its ability to cope with the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross the Channel from the French coast.

“This new centre will support French efforts to increase detention capacity, allowing more migrants who might otherwise travel by dangerous and illegal routes to the UK to be removed from the French coast,” the UK government said.

The funding package will be paid in installments, with the French also contributing significantly more funding, it was announced.

“Emmanuel and I share the same beliefs,“ Sunak said during a joint press conference following the talks. ”Criminal gangs should not get to decide who comes to our countries.

“Within weeks of my coming into office, we agreed our largest-ever small boats deal and today we’ve taken our cooperation to an unprecedented level to tackle this shared challenge.”

Illegal Channel Crossings

According to UK government figures, a record 45,755 illegal immigrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in 2022, up from just around 300 in 2018. More than 3,000 have already made the journey this year.

The prime minister has made “stopping the boats” one of his five priorities, and says he’s “determined to deliver” on his promise.

On March 7, the government introduced the Illegal Migration Bill, which will ban anyone who arrives in the UK illegally from claiming asylum. Under the new law, illegal entrants will be swiftly removed from the UK to their home country or a safe third country such as Rwanda. They will also be banned from reentry.

A group of illegal immigrants is brought to the port of Dover, England, after their small boat was intercepted in the English Channel on Oct. 9, 2022. (PA Media)

“I have made it one of my five priorities to stop the boats,“ Sunak told reporters in Paris. ”We are delivering on that priority to stop people coming to the UK illegally.

“Last year, I agreed the largest-ever small boats deal with France to increase UK-funded patrols by 40 percent. This week I announced measures to ensure nobody who enters the UK illegally can remain here.

“We don’t need to manage this problem, we need to break it. And today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to this disgusting trade in human life. Working together, the UK and France will ensure that nobody can exploit our systems with impunity.”

Returns Agreement ‘Not on the Table’

Despite the increased cooperation, the UK has been unable to reach an agreement with Paris on returning illegal immigrants to France.

Macron said the UK must negotiate its desired immigrant return agreement with the European Union rather than France, as following Brexit the UK is no longer a party to the Dublin Regulation, an EU law setting out which country is responsible for looking at an individual’s asylum application.

“This is not an agreement between the UK and France, but an agreement between the UK and the EU,“ he said. ”Because the Dublin agreements are no more in a situation to be implemented, so this is something now to be negotiated.”

Earlier, Nathalie Loiseau, a French member of the European Parliament who chairs the assembly’s EU–UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, said a returns agreement with France is “not on the table.”

“The UK decided to leave the European Union, so there is no bilateral agreement possible,“ she told the BBC. ”It’s in an EU competence, and the UK should try to negotiate a deal with the European Union.”

‘New Beginning’

Ties between Britain and France have often been rocky since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016.

But Sunak is hoping to capitalise on renewed goodwill with France and the EU after he struck the Windsor Framework—a new agreement with the bloc that seeks to fix problems with Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Following their bilateral talks, Macron hailed a “new beginning” in Anglo–French relations, saying, “It is a moment of reunion, of reconnection, and of a new beginning.”

Sunak described the French president as a “friend of Britain.”

“I always say, we left the EU, but we didn’t leave Europe,“ he stated. ”Emmanuel said previously ‘Brexit didn’t change geography.’

“We want to have a close, cooperative, collaborative relationship with our European partners and allies. And of course, that starts with our nearest neighbour France, and today is the first step on that journey.

“We’re writing a new chapter in this relationship, and I’m really looking forward to everything that we can build on in the coming months and years ahead.”

PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.