Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Agence France-Presse has learned from the French Interior Minister that France and the United Kingdom signed a new agreement on Monday to address illegal immigration through the Channel "Sea Channel".
And according to what the Belgian News Agency reported in Brussels today, Monday, this issue has raised tensions between Paris and London for several years now. The new deal should change that now.
London will pay Paris €72.2 million for the 2022-2023 period.
Paris, in turn, is working to increase security on the beaches of northern France by 40 percent.
This means that 350 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed on top of the current inspections.
According to other media reports, the agreement aims to intensify joint efforts between the two countries, to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing dangerously into the English Channel, according to what the British newspaper "Telegraph" reported.
The agreement stipulates that France will significantly increase the number of the 200 officers and volunteers working on the banks of the English Channel, in addition to establishing a joint control center between the two countries, staffed by British immigration officials, in order to prevent a much higher proportion of immigrants from leaving French territory towards Britain.
Rishi Sunak government and toughness in immigration control
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, issued a statement on Friday, stressing the "urgent need to address all forms of illegal immigration," according to Reuters.
The calls come amid a highly charged political debate over immigration in Britain, where new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seen as a hardliner against immigration and asylum policies.
Sunak's home minister, Soila Braverman, is also facing heavy criticism for describing the arrival of asylum seekers as an "invasion".
The British authorities had intercepted 28,526 people who tried to cross the sea towards its lands last year, but a British parliamentary report predicted that the number may reach 60,000 people this year.
Since 2014, at least 203 people have died or gone missing in an attempt to reach England from the northern coast of France, whether by land or sea, including 27 people who drowned in one day in 2021, according to the International Organization for Migration.