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The UK and France agreed a package of unprecedented measure to tackle illegal migration

10 March 2023 19:14 (UTC +04:00)

The UK and France have agreed a package of unprecedented measure to tackle illegal migration, APA reports citing Sky News.

This will include the UK giving France £480m over three years to invest in police, technology and intelligence to help reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving on its shores in small boats.

Hundreds of extra French law enforcement officers will use enhanced technology and intelligence insight to prevent illegal Channel crossings under a new agreement struck by Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron in Paris today.

For the first time, the UK will help fund a detention centre in France to enhance the country's ability to cope with the level of people being trafficked across the Channel.

This new centre will support French efforts to increase detention capacity, allowing more migrants who might otherwise travel by dangerous and illegal routes to the UK to be removed from the French coast.

The multi-year agreement will more than double the number of personnel deployed in northern France, and the UK will help fund this.
France has said it will dedicate a permanent French mobile policing unit to handling small boats, and drones and aircraft will be used to "clamp down on people trafficking routes".

"This enhanced cooperation aims to increase the interception rate for attempted crossings and drastically reduce the number of crossings each year, supporting our long-term, shared goal of completely stopping this illegal migration route," a joint statement said.