SHARM el-SHEIKH (Egypt), Nov 10: Following a meeting with French President
Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit at Sharm el-Sheikh,
Egypt, on Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said talks on illegal migration
across the Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane, were in the final stages
and a deal is underway.
As per the deal being finalised, UK Border Force officials will be deployed
in France to help check illegal migration, Daily Mail revealed. However, this
arrangement has been in place for the 20 years but did not work. The UK will
also give France around £ 80 million towards anti-dinghy patrols. The money
will raise the number of beach checks from the current 800 a day.
However, Sunak admitted it is a "complex issue and it's not one simple solution
that's going to solve it overnight". He said he had also been talking to other
European leaders.
Boris Johnson's Government too had been close to making an agreement.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told the House of Commons after the Sunak-Macron
talks that the Manston overcrowding in unhygienic circumstances is over as 2,000
people have been moved to other accommodation. There were 4,000 migrants at
Manston, despite the centre being designed to accommodate only 1,600 people
on a temporary basis.
Meanwhile, the Elysee Palace said the two countries will "advance co-ordination
to face the challenge of irregular migration".
But observers in London said they are sceptical.
It has been officially stated that the UK spends £7m a day on hotels for asylum
seekers. Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said it is "not sustainable for
the country to be spending billions of pounds a year on hotels".
On October 29, 1,000 illegal migrants crossed the Channel in 24 small boats
and landed at Dover. Last month a total of 6,000 people crossed over. Nearly
40,000 have arrived in the UK this year so far, undertaking the hazardous trip.
While 28,500 came in the whole of 2021.
Earlier, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she wanted to use the scheme
of sending migrants to Rwanda, apart from the Nationality and Borders Bill to
prosecute them. The Strasbourg court had blocked the scheme to send illegal
asylum seekers to Rwanda. It was claimed that this would deter illegal migration.
Last week, the Border Force immigration centre in the southern English port
of Dover was attacked with petrol bombs. The migrant issue became hot topic
last week over report of overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent.
Lee Anderson, a Tory MP, alleged that housing was being provided to illegal
migrants while the citizens are not getting council housing. "Send them straight
back the same day," he said.
However, Jenrick said the Government "should be guided by both our common desire
for decency because those are our values, but also hard-headed common sense".
History of migration
Migration from France to Britain has been going for centuries for reasons like
oppression, historical links between the two and socio-economic deprivation.
People were also looking for jobs while Britain wanted workers. There was also
a period of dual monarchy when Henry VI, son of Henry V, became king of both
England and France, in the 15th century, that encouraged migration. Among the
earliest settlers were Anglo-Saxons and later the Normans.
