UK signs revised deal with France on boat migrants
Suella Braverman is en route to Paris to sign an expanded deal aimed at stopping people crossing the English Channel in small boats.
The UK will now pay France £63m, under the revised agreement, to stop migrants from making the journey.
The previous deal was £55m – and now the French will up the number of patrolling officers along the French coast from 200 to 300.
But PM Rishi Sunak has warned the issue can’t be fixed “overnight.”
He said “there’s no a single thing to do” to tackle the issue, with the deal being part of a larger package of measures.
Braverman told UK broadcasters that “there will be a 40% uplift in the number of French gendarmes controlling the French beaches”.
So far this year more than 40,000 people have made the dangerous journey – it’s the highest figure on record.
According to the BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford, the new deal will likely disrupt the people smugglers operating in France but it’s unlikely to stop their trade.
As well as extra officers and patrols, the extended deal will mean more drones and night vision equipment, as well as more being spent on boosting reception and removal centres in France.
French ports will receive investment to increase the use of CCTV and detection dog teams to prevent illegal entry to the UK via lorries. UK observers will be embedded in French control rooms, and French observers embedded in UK control rooms – to help inform each other’s deployments.
