The governments of Britain and France recently signed a new pact which seeks to end the ongoing migration crisis in the English Channel by putting into place new measures which seek to prevent illegal migrants from departing French beaches.
Under the new agreement, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the number of officers patrolling French beaches would be doubled and that new tools including drones and radar systems would be employed to stop the relentless flow of illegal migrants across the Channel.
“This will bolster the patrolling of the 150-kilometer stretch of coastline regularly targeted by people-smuggling networks and enable quicker response rates to suspicious activity, stopping migrants leaving French beaches in the first place and preventing more dangerous and unnecessary crossings,” the UK Home Office explained in a statement .
“In addition to increased officer numbers, the [British] Home Secretary and [French] Interior Minister also agreed an enhanced package of cutting edge surveillance technology – including drones, radar equipment, optronic binoculars and fixed cameras. The specialist equipment will allow the French to be efficient in searching and clearing areas faster and help ensure officers are deployed in the right place at the right time, as a result increasing the number of migrants and facilitators detected and prevented from entering the water.”
In the past year, around 8,500 illegal boat migrants have successfully made their way across the English Channel from French beaches, according to figures from independent think-tank Migration Watch UK.
After reaching the shores of the UK, the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants make asylum claims, despite having travelled from France — a prosperous first world country, where technically they are meant to remain per international asylum law.
While British authorities examine the illegal boat migrants asylum claims, the government provides each and every one of them with free housing, access to free healthcare via the National Health Service (NHS), free dental and eyesight care, free education for their children, and a weekly cash stipend of €41.68 to €43.72, all courtesy of British taxpayers.
Migration Watch UK reports that British workers spend nearly €450 million each year on asylum related costs.
According to think tank, illegal migrants crossing the Channel will cost UK taxpayers well over a quarter of a billion euros in the next decade. Presently, there are some 41,600 failed asylum seekers residing in the UK.
This year alone, British and French authorities have thwarted some 5,000 illegal boat migrants from making their way to the shores of the UK, Patel said. She also added that in the past ten years the British government had given France more than €165 million to assist them in their efforts to stem illegal migration across the Channel.
“Thanks to more police patrols on French beaches and enhanced intelligence sharing between our security and law enforcement agencies, we are already seeing fewer migrants leaving French beaches,” Patel noted.
Patel added that new agreement between the two neighboring countries would help to “make channel crossings completely unviable.”
The Home Secretary also announced plans to introduce new legislation that will create an entirely new asylum system is “firm and fair” sometime next year.
