The United Kingdom has reached an agreement to revise its pact with France, which provides for raising the British payment from 62.7 to 72 million euros per year in exchange for reinforcing the surveillance of the transit of small migrant boats in the English Channel.
These additional funds will be used to improve surveillance on French beaches and, in return, British police officers will be able to participate in French patrols within French territory, reports the BBC. It is planned that over the next five months there will be an increase from 250 to 350 French officers patrolling the coast and there will also be a French officer presence at British control centers.
The pact provides for investment in drones, night vision equipment and security cameras to be installed along the French coast. It will also fund the training of police dogs to identify attempts to enter the UK in trucks and at reception centers in France.
The British Prime Minister, Risi Sunak, has expressed his «confidence» that this new agreement can reduce illegal trafficking, but warned that it is not «one thing» that can «fix» the situation, so he predicted «even greater collaboration with France».
From the opposition, the leader of the Labor Party, Keir Starmer, said that this agreement is «a small step in the right direction», but called for more action to address the problem of human trafficking. He also recalled that only 4 percent of the asylum applications submitted last year had been answered.
More than 40,000 people have crossed the English Channel in boats so far this year, 1,800 in the last week alone, according to official figures, a record number.
