French and British interior ministers have committed to strengthening the fight against illegal migration, including France lifting a ban on police stopping migrant boats at sea.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and his British counterpart Yvette Cooper met Thursday at the northern coastal town of Le Touquet where some migrants set off to try and reach the UK.
Retailleau announced he was seeking a change to the law to allow migrants to be tackled out of boats in shallow water.
The change would also allow police to use their own boats for the first time to take on people smugglers transporting migrants to Britain's shores in often flimsy and overloaded vessels.
The idea is to counter a tactic involving "taxi-boats" whereby people smuggling gangs remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in Northern France, without setting foot on land thereby avoiding police checks and arrests.
“We need to rethink our approach so that we can intercept the boats,” Retailleau said. “We have to be able to intercept them within 300m of the coast.”
Last year, 36,816 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK. At least 73 deaths were recorded, according to local French authorities.
France rescues over 100 migrants from Channel, capping deadly year for crossings
'Illegal stay' offence
In November Retailleau had mentioned the possibility of a "showdown" with London, but the two ministers found common ground.
"Our discussions are a bit tough when it comes to money," Retailleau said during a joint press conference, but "we agree on the objectives, and in the end, we always manage to find common ground."
Cooper called for strengthening the fight against illegal migration, "both here in northern France, between the UK and France, but also by enhancing actions across Europe".
Retailleau said he hoped to reinstate the offence of an "illegal stay", abolished in 2012, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt the Channel crossing.
Currently, migrants who try and cross the Channel are considered to have committed an offence only when they launch the boat.
Bilateral cooperation
While migration issues have long been a source of friction between London and Paris, the two ministers also announced an agreement to extend the Sandhurst Treaty through to 2027.
Under the 2018 agreement, the UK helps fund security at the border in France, where checks are conducted.
Sandhurst meeting proves bilateral relations are alive and well
The two ministers visited security facilities and units partly funded by the British, including a barrier installed on a waterway to prevent access to the sea.
Among the projects set to be co-financed by 2027 are an additional administrative detention centre (CRA) in Dunkirk, barracks for riot police deployed as reinforcements, and training programmes for drone operators.
During a bilateral summit in Paris in March 2023, London agreed to give France more than €500m over three years to help stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
In return, France was expected to increase the interception rate of boats attempting to cross the Channel and significantly reduce the number of illegal crossings.
Crossings reached a record in 2022 when more than 45,000 people arrived in the UK, dropped in 2023 before rising again in 2024, with around 36,800 arrivals – a 25 percent increase from the previous year.
Migrants crossing Channel to Britain in 2024 soar by 25 percent
Le Touquet accords
In November, Retailleau urged London to do more to combat illegal immigration, regretting the lack of legal routes to England since Brexit.
The Labour government has pledged to reduce immigration. However, faced with ongoing labour shortages in agriculture, it announced Tuesday a five-year extension of the rules allowing the employment of foreign seasonal agricultural workers.
On the eve of Thursday's meeting, Xavier Bertrand, the conservative president of France's northern Hauts-de-France region that includes Le Touquet and Calais, criticised the UK for allowing migrants to cross and then "work for peanuts" on the black market.
Bertrand told broadcaster TF1: “We have to be prepared to say listen, Britons, if things don’t change we’re going to hand your border back”, referring to the 2003 Le Touquet treaty under which France and the UK carry out immigration controls in each other’s seaports.
Retailleau had evoked ending the Le Touquet accords in November, but concluded it would be "the best way to rebuild the jungle", a huge makeshift migrant camp near Calais dismantled in 2016, and "to clog up cross-Channel traffic”.
