Suella Braverman has been told Channel crossings might potentially come from Belgium and the Netherlands after forging a new arrangement with France.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has experienced another setback in her efforts to reduce the number of deadly Channel crossings in tiny boats.
Her French colleague has cautioned that the present UK-France migration agreement is “incomplete,” since people traffickers may still operate in neighbouring EU nations such as Belgium and the Netherlands.
Gérald Darmanin has urged the Home Secretary to establish border agreements with Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in order to prevent crossings from these European nations.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the French Interior Minister said such moves would complete the UK-France migration deal reached in November.
The updated deal states that the UK would boost payments to France by around 15%, to £63 million per year, to cover extra personnel monitoring French beaches.
His appeal comes after four people perished last week when a dinghy carrying migrants overturned in frigid waters of the English Channel in the early hours of Wednesday.
Rishi Sunak’s government has had to deal with an increase in the number of Channel crossings this year, with 45,223 entries reported so far. This contrasts with more than 28,000 who crossed in tiny boats last year.
Last week, the Prime Minister committed to use additional resources to clear a massive backlog of asylum-seeker applications and announced new measures aimed at reducing the number of people arriving in the UK by crossing the Channel in the next year.
Among the proposals is more financing for the NCA, Britain’s version of the FBI, to combat organised immigration crime in Europe. In one event last year, 27 individuals perished on a risky voyage despite having called British and French coastguards for aid.
Mr Sunak launched a new five-point strategy to curb illegal immigration that primarily targets persons travelling from Albania. He warned the Commons that “enough is enough” and that the system is “unfair,” as he introduced a flurry of new immigration laws.
