France ‘must back’ Britain’s migrant plan, Sunak to tell Macron

PM to urge French president to fight UK's corner as he seeks new deal on dealing with small boat crossings

Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak will discuss a variety of issues at the summit, including Channel crossings
Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak will discuss a variety of issues at the summit, including Channel crossings Credit: Stefan Rousseau/Reuters

France must fight Britain’s corner on migrant deportations, Emmanuel Macron will be told, as he hammers out a new deal with Rishi Sunak to combat small boat crossings.

The Prime Minister will travel to Paris on Friday for a summit with the French president, where they will discuss small boats, Brexit, defence and energy.

British negotiators have accepted that Mr Macron will not agree unilaterally to take back illegal migrants from the UK and will instead argue that there needs to be an EU-wide returns deal with Britain.

British officials will press for the French president to take a more proactive stance in battling for an EU-wide deal to accept returns from the UK.

Britain has not deported a single Channel migrant to France under its post-Brexit returns policy, despite the vast majority of the 80,000 migrants who have reached the UK setting off from northern France. Just 21 have been deported to other EU countries.

The Prime Minister is expected to use talks with Mr Macron to push for France to “go further” on joint efforts to prevent migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.

It is thought Mr Sunak wants a “substantial” increase in patrols to raise the proportion of migrant boats prevented from leaving the French beaches to above the current 50 per cent.

Beach patrols in France have prevented some migrants from crossing the Channel
Beach patrols in France have prevented some migrants from crossing the Channel Credit: Jamie Lorriman

British officials also want the French to do more to prevent repeat attempts by migrants to reach the UK. Efforts to stop crossings have been hampered by French laws that mean officers cannot arrest migrants on the beaches, as trying to cross the Channel is not illegal.

The French president is demanding that Britain agree to multi-year deal to put “boots on the ground” on the beaches of northern France.

The talks between the leaders come days after Mr Sunak and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill. Mrs Braverman will also meet with her counterpart in the French capital on Friday.

The legislation announced on Tuesday will mean migrants who arrive in the UK illegally will be deported and hit with a lifetime ban from returning.

It is thought Mr Macron is likely to want to hear from the Prime Minister about how the Bill will make Britain a less attractive destination for migrants.

Downing Street stressed that the gathering at the Elysee Palace “isn't a summit on a single issue”, with energy security, the conflict in Ukraine and the “challenge posed by China” likely to feature.

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman confirmed Mr Sunak will look to raise his ambitions of working more closely on the issue of Channel crossings.

The spokesman said: "Certainly we are going in there with an ambition to go further on stopping the boats making these dangerous crossings."

The No 10 official pointed to the £63 million agreement already in place with France, designed to help prevent crossings and target human trafficking gangs, as a pact to be built upon.

Under the commitment, the number of French officers patrolling beaches on the country's northern coastline rose from just over 200 to 300. British officers were also, for the first time, permitted to be stationed in French control rooms and on the approaches to beaches to observe operations.

Nearly 3,000 people have arrived via small boats in the UK already this year, but France has successfully prevented around the same number from embarking on the journey.

The Prime Minister told The Telegraph on Tuesday: "We want to work together with the French so we can build on the joint approach we agreed last year and keep stepping up patrols and enforcement activity to clamp down on the gangs and stop more boats. This Friday's summit will be an opportunity to do just that."

The Prime Minister's official spokesman, in a briefing on Wednesday ahead of the talks, said: "We want a EU-UK returns agreement and will push that forward. But it is equally important that there is work on the ground right now to stop the crossings we are seeing even in these winter months.”

EU considers Rwanda-style offshoring for migrants

Britain could set up Rwanda-style deportation schemes with other European countries under plans being considered by ministers.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has confirmed that the Government is in talks with other third countries which would, like Rwanda, take migrants deported from the UK.

The negotiations are being conducted as other European countries are also now considering following the UK’s lead in “offshoring” asylum applications and processing.

Germany’s newly-appointed special commissioner for migration Joachim Stamp has revealed his Government is considering options for transferring asylum procedures to Africa.

It would mean migrants rescued on the Mediterranean would be transferred to North Africa for their asylum claims to be processed there. Denmark has signed a declaration with Rwanda to transfer up to 1,000 asylum seekers there annually, emulating the UK’s approach which is currently being challenged in the Court of Appeal.

The toughening European approach to migration was underlined on Friday when Rishi Sunak agreed a £478 million three-year deal with Emmanuel Macron that will include funding for a detention centre from which Channel migrants will be deported back to their home country or a safe third nation.

France is toughening its immigration policy with proposed new legislation that will double the time illegal migrants can be detained to 90 days. Anyone illegally crossing borders into France faces up to one year in jail.

Mr Jenrick declined to name countries Britain was talking to about Rwanda-style schemes but said: “There are other countries who are interested in doing this both with us and I should say also with other European countries.

“Because what we have set out to achieve here is something that a number of our European neighbours are considering following. Everyone sees that in a global migration crisis you have to take robust steps like this to secure your borders. And so it would not surprise me if other European countries follow where we have led.”

Asked by The Telegraph on Friday about the prospect of joint Rwanda-style schemes with other EU states on his way to the summit with President Macron, Mr Sunak said it was “good that we coordinate and cooperate where we can.”

He said illegal migration was “a challenge that is facing lots of countries and you’re seeing other countries are responding to it in their own way.

“I believe that the approach that we've set out is one that people over time will look to because this challenge is only growing, as the UN figure of 100 million people being displaced is quite striking. And everyone in one way or another is going to have to think how they're going to grapple with this challenge.”

On Monday, the Government faces a backlash from MPs over plans to detain families and their children who arrive illegally in the UK, as revealed last week by The Daily Telegraph. Former Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland said it was a matter of “great concern” to be ending a decade long ban on detaining children.

Home Office sources said there would be specialist provision but they would be detained. Unaccompanied children will not be detained, but face deportation when they reach 18 as ministers want to avoid families and children being targeted by people smuggling gangs.

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