Home secretary Suella Braverman pens £63m a year deal with France for help with migrant crossings

Fareham MP Suella Braverman has signed off on a new deal with France as the number of people arriving on the south coast after making the journey topped 40,000 for the year so far.

Alongside the increased spending, the two countries have agreed upon British immigration officers being stationed in French control rooms for the first time, drones and night vision equipment to help officers detect crossings, as well as increased surveillance around ports to prevent migrants entering the UK in lorries, with more CCTV and sniffer dogs.

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A new taskforce will be established to address the ‘recent rise in Albanians and organised crime groups exploiting illegal migration routes’ into western Europe and the UK, according to Downing Street. Meanwhile, Britain and France also pledged to ramp up co-operation on the matter, with a meeting of the ‘Calais Group’ of neighbouring countries to be scheduled as soon as possible.

The deal also sees the two countries promise to share more intelligence and for investment in French reception and removal centres for migrants prevented from crossing to the UK. Downing Street claims the increase in beach patrols in northern France would ‘increase early detection’, while the presence of UK staff in French control rooms would boost understanding of the “threat” at hand and help inform deployments.

But Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, claimed the deal fails to address the factors behind people choosing to put themselves at risk trying to reach Britain the first place – and will therefore ‘do little to end the crossings’. He has called for more 'safe routes’ to be created for migrants, and for the UK to reduce the backlogs in the current asylum system.

He said: ‘The government must take a more comprehensive approach and create an orderly, fair and humane asylum system that recognises that the vast majority of those taking dangerous journey are refugees escaping for their lives.

‘It needs to face up to the fact it is a global issue which will not be resolved by enforcement measures alone.’