Riot-trained officers will be deployed to French beaches under a new £662m agreement with the UK to prevent illegal migrants from traversing the English Channel.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood finalized a three-year deal with France on Thursday, which will bring in at least 50 officers trained in "riot and crowd control tactics" to manage violence and "hostile crowds."
The agreement will see France sending millions of pounds in drones, two helicopters, and a camera system to target human traffickers and unlawful migrants.
Ministers have indicated that approximately £100m of UK funding may be reallocated or removed after a year if insufficient journeys are halted.
The UK government has yet to specify what criteria the French need to fulfill to retain the funds.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Home Office anticipates that a removal center in Dunkirk, initially announced by the previous government in 2023, will be finished by year’s end.
Upon completion, the center, which will accommodate 140 individuals and employ over 200 officers, will aim to expel migrants from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, and Yemen, according to the department.
These locations signify the leading 10 sources of individuals undertaking small boat crossings in the past year.
With the updated agreement, the Home Office aims to have hundreds of migrants annually "taken off French beaches" and sent back to their home nations or other EU countries they have traveled through.
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During the signing, Mahmood remarked that the agreement was a "historic accord" that would "truly empower us to target the people smugglers."
In a subsequent interview, the home secretary mentioned that the agreement provided "flexibility," enabling the authorities to adjust as human traffickers altered their methods.
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"We will continue our efforts - as the gangs' business model evolves, we will adapt in order to undermine it, weaken it, and dismantle it," she stated.
French Interior minister Laurent Nunez stated: "This new accord enables our security forces to persist in their vital efforts against dangerous Channel crossings and enhance the safety of coastal inhabitants."
The Conservatives claimed that the government gave away "half a billion pounds of our money without any conditions whatsoever."
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Reform UK alleged that the government is providing France additional funds "for a system that has already proven ineffective."