‘Fifty people a week’: Fury on both sides of English Channel over migration deal

London: A bid to stop asylum seekers has sparked fury on both sides of the English Channel over forecasts it will return 50 people a week from Britain to French shores, amid warnings the plan will not deter thousands of others seeking refuge.

The migration deal is being dismissed as too weak to stem the flow of asylum seekers who head west across Europe in search of safety in Britain, given forecasts that 40,000 could arrive this year.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands during a London press conference on Thursday.Credit: Getty Images

In a parallel with Australian debates over two decades, political leaders in France and the UK are being urged by some to “stop the boats” while refugee groups urge fair treatment for displaced people.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to the “one in, one out” pact at the end of a three-day meeting in London full of high ceremony including a state dinner at Windsor Castle.

Macron addressed the UK Parliament, held an audience with King Charles and enjoyed conversations with the Prince and Princess of Wales at a state dinner also attended by Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Elton John.

In the political negotiations, however, Starmer and Macron produced an outcome that left the British media questioning whether the “one in, one out” deal would discourage anyone from boarding a small boat on French beaches.

Traffickers (with their faces covered) try to manage the number of migrants on a small boat at sunrise in Gravelines, France, this month.Credit: Getty Images

The agreement is meant to lead to a pilot scheme within weeks to return some asylum seekers to France when they cross to England on inflatable boats.

On Thursday, for instance, 573 migrants arrived in the UK on 10 boats, according to official government figures.

The agreement means the UK will accept those who can show they have a case for asylum in the UK – for example, if they have family there.

For each one accepted, the UK would send another one back to France from the cohort with no equivalent claim to settle in the UK.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage says the “one in, one out” deal is a “humiliation” for Britain.Credit: Getty Images

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, seen as the strongest opponent of Starmer with significant support in the polls, has attacked the deal as a “humiliation” for Britain because it would not discourage boats.

Farage, a key advocate for the popular vote to take the UK out of the European Union, was also infuriated by Macron’s claim in London that the migrant flows were bigger because of Brexit.

“Since Brexit the UK has no migratory agreement with the EU,” Macron said.

This gave migrants an incentive to cross the channel, he said, and meant the British public now experienced the “precise opposite” of what they were promised under Brexit.

An abandoned dinghy on a beach known for cross-channel launches in Dunkirk, France.Credit: Getty Images

EU members including Italy and Greece have warned against the French deal with the UK because it involves sending asylum seekers back to an EU country, raising a potential block on the trial.

French political figures attacked the deal on the grounds it would send too many back to their country, with Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart saying France had “handed everything” to the British.

In the UK, however, Conservative MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the outcome would have “no deterrent effect” because too few would be sent back to France.

France and the UK have agreed on ways to respond to asylum seeker boats, leading to outrage from Farage when he witnessed a “handover” in the channel to transfer people in lifejackets to a British vessel.

Unlike the Australian policy on the country’s western and northern approaches, there is no UK or French policy to turn boats around or intercept the boats and take the asylum seekers to third countries.

In a provocative move last weekend, French police waded into the water on a beach south of Calais and used a knife to slash the inflatable hull. A video of the incident, taken by the BBC, showed more than a dozen asylum seekers getting out of the boat and heading back to the beach.

The UK Refugee Council called for better treatment of those fleeing persecution but offered conditional support for the deal struck in London.

“Men, women and children fleeing oppressive regimes like the Taliban and brutal civil wars such as in Sudan should not need to risk their lives on boats to reach safety in Britain,” the council said.

“The groundbreaking one-for-one deal with France is an important first step, but it’s vital that it is implemented in a way that treats all those seeking asylum fairly and with respect and dignity. For now, it’s too soon to determine what the impact will be.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the agreement could offer protection to asylum seekers on both sides of the English Channel if it was done in the right way, but it said that would depend on the operational details.

The UNHCR warned that 86 people died last year trying to reach the UK on the small boats.

“Men, women and children continue to risk their lives at the hands of smugglers and traffickers,” it said.

Effigies of migrants in a boat burn atop the bonfire at Moygashel, Northern Ireland on Thursday.Credit: AP

“As of 6 July this year, around 21,117 people have already made the crossing and tragically, at least 14 people have lost their lives at sea.”

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, police are investigating as a hate crime effigies of a boat of migrants which was set alight on a bonfire this week alongside a sign reading “stop the boats”.

The bonfire in Moygashel, 65 kilometres west of Belfast, was part of annual commemorations that take place across mainly Protestant “loyalist” neighbourhoods in Northern Ireland to celebrate William of Orange’s victory over the Roman Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Normally the bonfires contain effigies of Catholic Irish politicians, and anti-Catholic slogans.

The burning of the effigies was the latest anti-migrant incident in Northern Ireland, which included riots last month after the alleged attempted sexual assault of a girl by two Romanian-speaking teenagers.

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