France wants migrants to be able to claim UK asylum from within EU
France has called for migrants to be able to claim UK asylum from within the European Union after the latest small boat tragedy in the Channel.
Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, demanded safe legal routes to the UK for migrants, just hours after the French authorities confirmed 12 had died, two were missing and two were in critical condition.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, described the incident as “horrifying and deeply tragic” as she said “vital” efforts to dismantle “dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs” and boost border security “must proceed apace”.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Darmanin described it as a “terrible shipwreck”. At a press conference later, he made his appeal for “re-establishing a classic migration relationship with our friend and neighbour [Britain]”.
Mr Darmanin said: “The solution is … to do a treaty that allows the UK and the EU, not just France and the UK, to create a causal link between asylum requests and the granting of asylum in the UK. Otherwise, we will be condemned to see the small boats continue.”
The minister said migrants were attracted to the UK because they could “often work without papers [and] are very rarely expelled” from the country. He said: “The Rwanda deal has fallen through and didn’t deter the human traffickers.”
He added that the “tens of millions of euros we negotiate every year with our British friends, who only pay a third of what we spend” would not stop illegal departures, referring to the £478 million Anglo-French deal to put more gendarmes on the beaches.
Starmer unlikely to agree
The Government is unlikely to agree to such a demand. Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that he would be open to a new “Dublin” agreement allowing the UK to return illegal migrants to the EU, but has ruled out a quid pro quo deal that would see the UK accept thousands of migrants from the EU.
The Government scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme and has used the money saved to set up a new Border Security Command which will harness officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force and MI5 to smash the people smuggling gangs.
Up to 1,000 extra officers will be recruited, with hundreds of them deployed across Europe to work with Europol and other agencies trying to break up the gangs at source.
Cleverly: Situation is tragic
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary who pledged to revive the Rwanda scheme as part of his Tory leadership pitch, said the situation was “tragic” and could not be allowed to continue.
He said: “It is not enough to talk about ‘smashing the gangs’ when the real-life consequences are so serious. Labour must re-establish the deterrent that the NCA said we need to stop vulnerable people being exploited and secure our border.”
Last month, in its annual assessment of crime threats to Britain, the NCA said the dangerous journeys remained a “persistent and high-volume threat” and the sheer numbers – coupled with migrants “wading out to boats or transferring from taxi boats” – had increased the likelihood of fatalities.
Graeme Biggar, head of the law enforcement agency, said “more people [are] being put onto smaller and flimsier boats” as he told how an asylum system that worked “quickly and effectively” could deter migrant crossings.
Charities including the Refugee Council backed the French calls for the Government to open up more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers.