More than 5,600 migrants have arrived illegally in England by crossing the Channel on board boats since the start of 2020. A low figure if we compare it to the 24,000 migrants detected in 2019 in lorries. entrance to the Channel tunnel or to the port of Calais. But the increase in the phenomenon of “small boats” has been exponential since the end of 2018, and its high visibility has made it politically flammable.
To stop these crossings, England and France are stepping up negotiations. It did not take five days for Gerald Darmanin to, once appointed Minister of the Interior, get to Calais. He met there, on July 12, his British counterpart Priti Patel in order, he explained on Twitter, to strengthen cooperation in the field of security for “Fight against wild crossings of the Channel”. The two ministers then staged the signing of a convention creating “A Franco-British intelligence unit” in the fight against smugglers.
There is one aspect on which the two countries also agree, it is the return to France of migrants who have reached the English coasts in “small boats”. Evictions have always taken place, but for the first time this summer, several charters were chartered. And the British government wants to speed up the movement to several countries in Europe.
Very firm rhetoric
“Between the 1er January 2019 and August 31, 2020, the United Kingdom carried out around 100 escapes to France. These figures are stable ”, however assures a French diplomatic source. Because a large part of expulsion procedures actually fail. British lawyer Toufique Hossain, from Duncan Lewis, has thus managed to suspend nearly twenty expulsion measures to Spain and France in recent weeks, while a judge studies them.
The British authorities have adopted a very strong rhetoric in an attempt to counter critics who point to contradictions between the Johnson government’s promises to “Take back border control” thanks to Brexit, and the migration situation on the south-eastern coast of the country. Priti Patel even threatened to bring in the Royal Navy. She also promised a review ” this year ” asylum applications in the UK, believing that migrants arrive in large numbers because they find “Racist France”.
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