British taxpayers will hand over another 62.7 million euros (55 million pounds) to France The Ministry of the Interior revealed that it will provide funding for another crackdown on boat crossing the strait.
Minister of the Interior, Pritty PatelThe payment was agreed to as part of an agreement reached with French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday.
At least 430 people crossed the Strait of Dover on Monday, setting a single-day record.
According to current official data compiled by PA Media, more than 287 immigrants successfully arrived in the UK on Tuesday, bringing the total number of immigrants this year to at least 8,452.
This means that the number of people taking a small boat across the dangerous journey of the English Channel this year has exceeded the total number of people for the whole of 2020-there are more than five months left in 2021.
The news that Britain will pay 55 million pounds to the French Border Patrol may irritate MPs who thought that France should bear the cost in the past.
The Ministry of the Interior said that as part of the agreement, the number of police officers patrolling French beaches will more than double for the second time in a year to prevent boats from leaving French beaches.
The package also includes the following:
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French officers patrolled a wider area on the northern coast between Boulogne and Dunkirk, and expanded their patrols to the northwest around Dieppe.
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Deploy wide-area surveillance technology to improve coverage on the French coast to prevent cross-border attempts, including the use of aerial surveillance.
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Invest in infrastructure to improve border security at major border crossings along the Straits.
The new agreement will take effect in the next few days.
With the support of the United Kingdom last year, France doubled the number of police officers deployed on French beaches every day, which resulted in the number of border crossings blocked by France so far this year doubled in the same period in 2020.
But the Ministry of the Interior said that with the increase in French interceptions, organized criminal groups changed their strategy and moved further to the French coast, forcing immigrants to take longer and more adventurous journeys.
Patel is under increasing pressure from all parties to control this crisis. The agreement with France comes as Parliament is debating the flagship asylum bill.Humanitarian organizations say the measures in the bill will not help resolve The root cause of strait crossing.
Despite the proliferation of such border crossings, the UK still receives far fewer ship arrivals and asylum applications compared to many European counterparts.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at least 44,230 people have reached Europe through the Mediterranean and land routes so far this year.
Despite the dramatic increase in the number of small boats arriving on the south coast of England, the number of asylum applications in the UK dropped to 29,456 in 2020. This is significantly lower than the 93,475 asylum applications filed in France and 121,955 asylum applications in Germany.
