Emmanuel Macron demands more money from UK to stop migrants leaving France
Emmanuel Macron is seeking a major increase in British funding to stop migrants leaving the French coast.
British and French officials are negotiating a longer-term multi-million pound deal to pay for beach patrols, surveillance and police to smash the people smuggling gangs ahead of an Anglo-French summit in Paris between the Prime Minister and the French president.
Sources from the Elysee Palace said that officials were trying to agree a “multi-annual financing framework” that would allow them to “better plan our actions” and increase officers, equipment and asylum accommodation for migrants.
“We are ready to do more,” said one French government official.
Last weekend, The Telegraph revealed that Rishi Sunak was seeking a “substantial” increase in beach patrols amid fears that as many as 85,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year if the trend of the first two months continues.
So far, 3,000 have reached the UK following a record 45,000 last year.
It is the first bilateral summit between France and Britain for five years with both sides said to be keen to repair “a beautiful friendship” after rows over Channel migrants, post-Brexit trading agreements and the Aukus submarine deal.
The talks follow last November’s £63 million agreement under which the UK paid towards a 40 per cent increase in French officers as well as extra drones, buggies and other surveillance equipment.
UK and French ministers agree that doubling the numbers of migrants prevented from leaving the beaches to 80 or 90 per cent would break the people smugglers’ economic model by making crossings unviable.
A senior Elysee official said: “It needs a very large and concerted co-operation which includes police co-operation on French beaches on the Channel. We are doing this and we are ready to do more, but we have to be very clear about the responsibilities each other has to assume.”
However, French sources cautioned that “boots on the ground” was not the only “operational answer” to combating illegal migration.
One source said: “Being effective in our response necessitates much more than more police on the beaches of Calais which is the very reason why we initiated the Calais group [of countries] because we need to work together against the smugglers against the networks.
“You need to be very operational and very effective in what you’re doing before people reach the beaches of Calais.”
Government sources indicated that the small boats deal with France has yet to be finalised, but suggested that the UK was hoping for a “substantial” increase in the number of officers patrolling the beaches.
