Migration Watch UK
November 14, 2022
Commenting, Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:
Working with France on this crisis is all very well but the public will be forgiven for seeing this latest, more-of-the-same, agreement as another one throwing good money after bad.
What remains puzzling for most people is why France is willing to stop migrants from setting out from its shores but refuses to take back those migrants back if they slip through and are apprehended by the British.
The agreement means that Britain will pay at least £60 million more to France as part of an agreement against illegal immigration across the Channel.
The government had already handed around £200 million to the French government since 2015 to tackle illegal immigration (including more than £50 million in an agreement signed in mid-2021, before crossings spiked to then - but now surpassed - record levels in November that year).
For more background, see our 2020 briefing note: MW475 - Spending on tackling illegal immigration from France