Following the most recent small boat disaster in the Channel, France has demanded that migrants be allowed to apply for asylum in the UK from within the European Union.
In the hours following another tragedy on the Channel, where the French authorities confirmed 12 had died, two were missing, and two were critically injured, Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister of France, demanded safe, legal routes for migrants to reach the United Kingdom.
The incident was called “horrifying and deeply tragic” by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who also stated that “vital” efforts to strengthen border security and dismantle “dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs” “must proceed apace.”
The solution, according to Darmanin, is to draft a treaty that would enable both the UK and the EU—rather than just France and the UK—to establish a causal connection between asylum requests and the UK’s decision to grant them. If not, we will be forced to watch the little boats go on.
The minister claimed that because they could “often work without papers [and] are very rarely expelled” from the UK, migrants were drawn to the nation. “The Rwanda deal fell through and didn’t deter the human traffickers,” he stated.
Referring to the £478 million Anglo-French agreement to increase the number of gendarmes on the beaches, he continued, saying that the “tens of millions of euros we negotiate every year with our British friends, who only pay a third of what we spend” would not prevent illegal departures.
It is improbable that the British Government will grant such a request. While he has ruled out a quid pro quo agreement that would see the UK accept thousands of migrants from the EU, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that he would be open to a new “Dublin” agreement allowing the UK to return illegal migrants to the EU.
With the money saved, the Labour-led government established a new Border Security Command that will use agents from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force, and MI5 to take down people-smuggling organizations. The Tories’ plan to deport people from Rwanda was abandoned.
As part of his Tory leadership bid, James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, promised to bring back the Rwanda plan, calling the situation “tragic” and unsustainable.
“Smashing the gangs” is not enough when there are such dire real-world repercussions, he declared. Labour needs to put back in place the deterrent that the NCA stated is necessary to secure our border and prevent vulnerable people from being exploited.