British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spent the day on Friday March 10 in Paris, accompanied by seven ministers, as part of a Franco-British summit, the first in five years. Emmanuel Macron and him talked about cultural exchanges or military cooperation. Migration policy has occupied an important place, with a new agreement that is not going well on the other side of the Channel.
With our correspondent in London, Emeline Wine
London will pay 540 million euros over the next three years to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel. This project is not very well received in London. This Friday’s agreement provides for the construction of a detention center in Hauts-de-France. This approach is denounced by NGOs. For Amnesty International, for example, the United Kingdom ” shirks his responsibilities “.
►Also read: Franco-British summit: London will fund a detention center for migrants in France
Zoe Gardner, a member of an organization for refugees, criticizes on Sky News the substance of the strategy. ” The purpose of detention is administrative, it is to keep someone in one place while organizing their expulsion, she believes. However, the people who are on the French coast come from countries where it would be very dangerous to send them back, and therefore illegal. And the French do not have the possibility of expelling them, any more than us! »
“ Even more migrants suffer »
The Labor opposition demanded the return of migrants to France. Zoe Gardner also points out the ineffectiveness of this kind of agreement. “ Last year alone, the Minister of the Interior released 80 million euros a year to build more fences and organize more patrols in France. And this is just one example among a whole series of other meetings and other agreements, where astronomical sums are paid to France, and nothing changes, except that even more migrants suffer. »
Analysts expect 80 000 people cross the English Channel in makeshift boats this year.
►Also read : English Channel: more than 45,000 illegal crossings in 2022, another record year