It was one of the top priorities of the new London government and action has already been taken to combat it. The United Kingdom and France have recently updated the collaboration agreement between the two countries to try to break the increase in the flow of people crossing the Manchego canal irregularly. Thus, next year, France will pay EUR 72.2 million, among others, for increasing by 40% the number of border patrols controlled by the coast and allowing British agents to observe their canal areas.

This agreement is the fourth that both countries have signed in three years and responds to the increase in the number of migrants arriving in the United Kingdom from the English Channel in recent months. In fact, since the beginning of the year more than 40,000 people have crossed the border by this route, 28,526 last year, 8,404 in 2020 and less than 2,000 in 2019.

Gerald Darmanin, French Interior Minister and his British counterpart Suella Braverman signed last Monday in Paris the agreement, which states that the aim of this measure is to prevent illegal migration and deal with human trafficking: “We have to do everything we can to stop people from making these dangerous journeys and to stop people’s traffickers.”

Instead of offering safe roads for these people and asylum seekers who risk their lives crossing the sea, both governments have decided to increase cross-border police control against NGOs working in the defence of migrants’ rights and activists’ proposals.

According to Safe Passage, an organization that calls for safe routes for asylum seekers, smugglers’ channel control cannot be broken without offering alternatives to refugees: “Governments should work together, through a joint process, to help people seek asylum safely in the UK and do the same in France.”

With the investment received, the populations patrolling the coast of Dunkirk and Calais will increase from 250 to 350. Technological equipment for canal inspection will also be improved with new drones, cameras and helicopters, and dog equipment for human detection will be increased. However, the most significant point of the agreement is that it will allow British agents to participate in these exploratory work, which for the first time will be able to carry out observer work across the border, in the French checkpoints and in the canal patrols.