Sunak, Macron Discuss Illegal Migration as UK PM Promises to ‘Grip’ Challenge

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a bilateral meeting during the COP27 climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Nov. 7 discussed an agreement to reduce the armada of small boats bringing illegal immigrants across the English Channel to the UK during a meeting on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

“By working together with our European partners, we can make a difference, grip this challenge of illegal migration and stop people coming illegally,” Sunak said afterward.

Downing Street refused to comment on “speculation” in the Daily Mail that Britain had agreed to pay France £80 million ($91 million) to step up patrols along its coast and UK Border Force officers would be deployed on the other side of the English Channel.

“There are still discussions ongoing so I can’t get into that sort of speculation at this stage. We will set out detail at the earliest opportunity,” the prime minister’s official spokesman told PA on Nov. 8.

“My understanding is we’re in the final stages of what could be an agreement, which would be very good news,” work and pensions Secretary Mel Stride told Sky News. “I think there has been a fundamental shift in the tone between ourselves and the French.”

Dan O’Mahoney, the Home Office’s clandestine Channel threat commander, told the Home Affairs Committee that the French police had stopped 28,000 migrants from crossing this year and destroyed 1,072 boats used by the traffickers.

O’Mahoney praised the work of a joint intelligence cell in Calais, where the Home Office, the National Crime Agency, and French authorities share information on human traffickers, and said it had managed to dismantle 55 organised crime groups this year.

However, Conservative MP Tim Loughton pointed out that 28,000 migrants who were stopped by the French could be the same 1,000 people stopped 28 times; he asked O'Mahoney if the French police detained those who were prevented from crossing the Channel.

O'Mahoney confirmed the French had no powers, under that nation’s law, to arrest or detain people unless they were believed to be traffickers.

‘Cracking Down on Criminal Smuggling Gangs’

“The prime minister met France’s President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of COP27 in Egypt today,“ a Downing Street spokesman said on Nov. 7. ”The prime minister and President Macron spoke about the ongoing challenge of illegal migration, stressing the urgency of cracking down on criminal smuggling gangs. They committed to continue working together with partners to address the issues in the Channel.”

As the British seek to put more pressure on the French to block the trafficking routes, immigration minister Robert Jenrick confirmed it wasn’t the government’s intention to turn the Manston processing facility in Kent into a “permanent site for housing migrants.”

In response to a question by Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, Jenrick said the number of illegal immigrants at Manston was now “below 1,600” with “over 2,300 people being placed in onward accommodation,” which is largely understood to be hotels in various parts of the country.

“The population is now back at an acceptable level and that is a considerable achievement,“ Jenrick said. ”It’s essential that it remains so and he is right to say that the challenge is far from over … we have to be aware of that and to plan appropriately.”

“It’s certainly not mine or the Home Secretary’s intention that Manston is turned into a permanent site for housing migrants.”

PA Media contributed to this report.