Illegal Cross-channel
Movements: Discussions with French Counterpart
(Lichfield) (Con)
12. What recent discussions she has had with her French
counterpart on illegal cross-channel movements.(902168)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
The Prime Minister and I are committed to reducing dangerous
illegal migration into the UK, which is why I was in Paris today
with my French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, to agree a new joint
strategy and operational plan, which will drive forward our next
phase of co-operation and make this route unviable
eventually.
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her agreement in Paris
today but, as she herself has said, there is no silver bullet.
Given that there are so many hundreds of miles of French
coastline to be policed, will this agreement be a game
changer?
As my hon. Friend says, on its own, this agreement will not fix
the problem—it is important that everyone is clear about that.
However, I am very proud of the co-operation that the UK and
France have led in recent years. This deal represents a step
change and a big step forward in our joint challenge. For the
first time under this new integrated approach, UK officers will
join law enforcement colleagues in France as embedded observers
to share real-time information relating to small boats. The deal
will include significant investment in intelligence capability
and information sharing that all agencies will use, including
the National Crime
Agency and Europol. I believe that this is a big
step forward and I encourage everyone here to get behind it.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
The Home Affairs Committee’s report on small boat crossings,
published in the summer, made a series of recommendations, one of
which was more engagement with the French, so we very much
welcomed the announcement this morning. Of course, it is the
fifth announcement on arrangements with the French in four years,
and there is not a single one thing that will solve this problem.
That is why we made a series of recommendations, including:
securing an agreement with the EU on the return of failed asylum
seekers; and piloting the provision of initial UK asylum
applications at facilities within French reception centres. That
would mean that individuals wanting to seek asylum in the UK
could do so without having to get into those awful dinghies and
make that treacherous journey across the channel. Will the Home
Secretary look again at the whole suite of recommendations that
the Select Committee made after two years of looking at this
subject?
I read with interest the report from the Select Committee, which
makes several important points about greater collaboration and
deeper co-operation with our friends in France. Last year our
joint efforts saw more than 23,000 dangerous and unnecessary
crossings prevented, and this year to date more than 30,000
crossing attempts have been stopped by the French. Joint working
has also resulted in the dismantling of 55 organised crime groups
and secured more than 500 arrests since its inception in 2020.
That operational collaboration is absolutely integral to solving
this common challenge.
(Dover) (Con)
Regrettably, the modest French agreement falls short of what is
needed to address the scale, impact and urgency of the channel
crossings issue. We do not need more observation—we need action
taken on the French side. Even today, as the ink dried on this
new deal, small boats crept through the sea-mist and one even
landed on a beach in a residential coastal village in my
constituency. Will my right hon. Friend meet me and Kent leaders
to discuss the dreadful impact on local services, which they
described in a letter to her two weeks ago as being at breaking
point?
I thank my hon. Friend for all her work on this issue over
several years. As I said, I am not going to overplay this
agreement. It is an important step forward and provides a good
platform on which to secure deeper collaboration, and it
represents progress. For the first time, UK officers will be on
the ground in France, working hand in hand with their French
counterparts. They will be working side by side in the command
HQ. They will be working with intelligence and surveillance
material together. They will be partners in a very material sense
in the fight against this challenge. Is that going to solve the
problem on its own? It will not, but I encourage everybody to
support the deal we have secured.
Mr Speaker
The Home Secretary might not like it, but if I may give her some
positive advice, when you answer a question you are meant to look
to the Chair. That is all I will say.
(Hackney North and Stoke
Newington) (Lab)
The Home Secretary insists that the agreement announced today
represents a step forward, but is she able to tell the House
whether it will mean fewer small boats crossing the channel?
A large win from the agreement is that there will be more French
gendarmes patrolling the French beaches. There is a 40% uplift to
the number of personnel that the French are deploying. That must
be a success, and I encourage the right hon. Lady to welcome
it.
Mr Speaker
We come now to the shadow Home Secretary, .
(Normanton, Pontefract and
Castleford) (Lab)
It is astonishing that the Home Secretary has not made an oral
statement on this subject, given the number of people who want to
ask questions. She is preventing full scrutiny of this deal.
Could that be because her written statement admits that there
have been only 140 smuggling-related convictions across all of
Britain and France in 35 months? Can she confirm that that means
there have been on average just four convictions a month for
those dangerous crimes, even though last month alone nearly 7,000
people arrived in the UK as a result of organised criminals
profiting from putting lives at risk? Why is the Government’s
action against criminal smuggler gangs so pitifully weak?
Why is the Government’s action so pitifully weak? We introduced
legislation—an extensive Bill designed specifically to deal with
the problem occurring on our shores—and on every occasion, what
did Labour Members do? They voted against it. If they were really
serious about solving this problem, they would be supporting our
proposals, not carping from the sidelines.
That is a totally nonsense answer. The Home Secretary obviously
is not aware that former chief constables have warned that her
Nationality and Borders Act 2022 makes it harder to prosecute
people traffickers, and that in fact it is adding six-month
delays to the asylum system and pushing up the costs.
Patrols and intelligence sharing are welcome but long overdue,
but will the Home Secretary match Labour’s funded policy for a
major expansion of additional specialist officers in
the National Crime
Agency as part of a proper plan to work with other
countries to investigate and crack down on those gangs? Or is she
actually preparing for cuts in policing and security operations
on Thursday because her party’s disastrous management of the
economy has let everyone down?
Of course we need to go further and faster in the fight against
illegal migration. I am very disappointed and concerned by the
unprecedented numbers of people arriving here illegally. We are
taking steps to fix it. The reality is, as I said, that this year
alone more than 30,000 attempts have been prevented by the
French. I have come back today from securing a deal that will
increase the number of French patrols on the French coastline,
which will reinforce our collaboration and intelligence work and
strengthen our joint fight, but what do Labour Members do? They
criticise. They criticise because the simple truth is that this
is not about the French deal or our response, but about their
abject failure to speak on behalf of the British people. They do
not care about illegal migration; they want an open-doors
migration policy, as they always have.
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson, .
(Cumbernauld, Kilsyth
and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)
Of course, we all welcome closer co-operation with the French,
but the Home Secretary is absolutely right to temper her
expectations given that previous deals were signed in 2010, 2014,
’15, ’16, ’18, ’19, ’20 and, indeed, ’21. What discussions has
she had with the French about safe legal routes for those with
clear links to the United Kingdom, linked if necessary with an
appropriate returns agreement? Surely she must see that only a
deal that includes safe legal routes can make a significant and
lasting impact.
I am not going to repeat myself, but I think the deal is a good
step forward and a great platform from which to build deeper
co-operation. I say gently to the hon. Gentleman that his
question would have much more credibility if Scotland stepped up
further and took a better share of those who come here seeking
refuge and asylum.
