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UK proposes joint patrols to France to curb migration




British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed French President Emmanuel Macron a plan to “go further and faster” in actions against migrant crossings through the English Channel, with five measures that include joint maritime patrols to prevent vessels from leaving the French coast or a bilateral return agreement.

“This would have an immediate effect and would significantly reduce – if not stop – the crossings, saving lives, by fundamentally breaking the business model of criminal gangs,” Johnson said in a letter he sent to Macron and posted on Twitter. .

In this context, it has ensured that London would be ready to start patrols joint “from the beginning of next week”, “to expand them later”, since it sees this measure as the one that requires “more urgent advances”.

The proposal arrives after the death of 27 migrants trying to get to England on Wednesday night. The sinking of his boat has become the deadliest migration drama in the region since the number of crossings of the English Channel increased in 2018.

Migrants in a motor boat

More technology and migrant returns

Along with his requests for joint patrols “with manned and unmanned aircraft,” Johnson noted that the steps include the deployment of “most advanced” technology, such as sensors and radars, as well as working immediately on a migrant return agreement with France and a similar agreement with the European Union.

“I propose that we launch a bilateral readmission agreement to allow the return of all illegal immigrants who cross the English Channel,” said the British leader, referring to similar agreements concluded by the EU with Belarus or Russia. In this regard, the prime minister has insisted that “returning them quickly” would reduce “the incentive so that people put their lives in the hands of the traffickers. “

French police arrest five suspected smugglers after the death of at least 27 migrants in the English Channel

The British Prime Minister has also urged to deepen the work of the Joint Intelligence Cell with a “better exchange of information in real time” to carry out “arrests and prosecutions on both sides of the channels.”

France is a transit country, we are fighting these smuggling networks they use anguish, but for this we must improve European cooperation “, the French president had previously defended, during a visit to Zagreb.

A regular theme in bilateral tensions

The issue of the crossings, which regularly fuels bilateral tensions, is sensitive for the British Conservative Government, which has made the fight against immigration your post-Brexit workhorse. Until now, France has always rejected this joint patrol proposal, raised several times by Boris Johnson, on sovereignty grounds.

The British authorities will travel to Paris on Friday to hold talks with the French government, while the British Interior Minister, Priti Patel, will go to Calais on Sunday. In addition, Johnson has stated that he was willing to elevate this meeting to a full summit of the leaders of France and the United Kingdom.

Taking advantage of the presidency of France in the EU, in the first half of 2022, Macron also wants to propose a reform of the Schengen area, which allows free movement, to apply greater surveillance at the internal borders, according to sources cited by the station Europe 1.

As of November 20, 31,500 migrants had left the French coast since the beginning of the year and 7,800 had been rescued. Before this sinking, the number of victims since January was three dead and four missing.

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