While the agreement signed by the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) on December 24 seals the fate of trade relations between the two parties, a number of subjects still need to be discussed in the framework. of Brexit. Among them: asylum and immigration policies, which were not included in Michel Barnier’s negotiating mandate to define the “Future relationship” between London and Brussels.
On the UK side, however, this is a major issue: the government of Boris Johnson – through its Home Secretary, Priti Patel, a “Brexiteuse” from the start – has had no stop repeating his will to “Take back border control”. Since 2018, the phenomenon of “Small boats” – these makeshift boats on which migrants try to reach the English coast by the English Channel – is exponential: in 2020, more than 1,200 crossings or attempted crossings were recorded by the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, against some 260 in 2019. In total, more than 8,000 people may have reached England by sea while at least seven migrants have died in the Channel, considered one of the busiest and most dangerous sea routes in the world.
At the same time, attempts to pass by truck – there were 24,000 in 2019 – were boosted by the traffic jams that formed at the entrance to the port of Calais as Brexit approached. The authorities identified 2,889 at the end of December 2020 against 1,400 the previous year at the same period. For the past week, police checks have been stepped up all along the coast. On November 19, a young Sudanese, Mohamed Khamisse Zakaria, died, hit by a car on the A16, while fleeing from the police after trying to get into a truck.
Lack of anticipation
In recent months, the British have tried to increase returns to France and other EU countries. To do this, they were based on the so-called “Dublin” European regulation. In the absence of agreement, the text ceased to apply in the United Kingdom since 1er January. According to this regulation, an asylum application can only be examined by one European country, the country of entry into the EU, most of the time determined by where the person’s fingerprints were recorded for the first time. In the event of movement within Europe, the asylum seeker is then sent back to the country in question. Post-Brexit, negotiations are continuing: London wants a bilateral readmission agreement, in particular with France, while Paris is pleading for a comprehensive agreement with the EU.
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