Migrants crammed into a small, inflatable dinghy cross the English Channel from France in March 2024. Britain and France inked a deal Thursday aimed at deterring people from making the journey under a pilot scheme that would see them sent right back, though the numbers that would be affected were not announced. File photo by Tolga Akmen/EPA-EFE
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Friday she expected Brussels to back a new so-called “one-in, one-out” deal with France aimed at curbing the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Cooper said she was confident the European Commission would endorse the pilot scheme signed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron during a state visit after Paris said it needed legal authorization.
The deal, which would see France take back migrants from Britain for the first time in an arrangement under which one migrant who arrives without permission is returned for each migrant with a legal asylum claim in France that Britain takes in, must also be approved by the other 26 EU countries.
Speaking to a London radio station, she added that she didn’t believe the scheme would be blown off track by resistance from countries fearful they might end up dealing with returned migrants, particularly frontline nations Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Italy and Malta which bear the brunt of migration from Africa and the Middle East and beyond.
“We have been talking to the EU commissioners. We’ve also been talking to other European interior ministers and governments throughout this process. The French interior minister and I have been speaking about this, to develop this, since October of last year, and the EU commissioners have been very supportive,” Cooper said.
“So that is why we have designed this in a way to work, not just for the U.K. and France, but in order to fit with all their concerns as well.”
However, Brussels said Friday that it needed
“What we have now is an announcement and a political agreement, in principle, to have a pilot agreement,” said an EU commission spokesman.
“Once we know more about the substance and the form of that, we can tell you more about it, but we will look at this together with U.K. and France we will be working with all parties involved.”
Cooper also insisted she was confident the plan would hold up against legal challenges that caused years of delays that ultimately sank a previous “deterrence” strategy championed by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak involving sending irregular migrants to Rwanda.
Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative MP Chris Philp, condemned the scheme as a publicity stunt.
“Starmer’s deal yesterday is a gimmick that won’t work, just like his ‘smash the gangs’ claim (now never mentioned) was a gimmick that didn’t work,” he said in a post on X.
The deal announced Thursday has been short on details, apart from stressing it would dismantle the business model of the criminal gangs smuggling people to Britain in often unseaworthy small dinghies, but the BBC said 50 people would be exchanged each week, initially.
A news release from the Home Office, Downing Street and the Border Force said the plan will be rolled out in tandem with action on so-called “pull factors,” such as the ability to find work illegally, that make Britain so attractive to migrants, which was repeatedly raised by Macron and the French side during his visit.
The government pledged a “major nationwide blitz targeting illegal working hotspots, focusing on the gig economy and migrants working as delivery riders.”
“The U.K. will go further by changing the law to support a clampdown on illegal working in the gig economy. New biometric kits will be rolled out for Immigration Enforcement teams so they can do on-the-spot checks,” the statement added.
