UK and France launch joint intelligence unit to crack down on Channel migrant traffickers

Refugee charity appeals for ‘a safe and legal way for people to claim asylum so this untenable situation is resolved’

Rescuers reach a group of migrants in the English Channel on Saturday (PA)

The UK and France have launched a new intelligence-sharing unit to crack down on illegal traffickers behind migrant crossings in the English Channel.

Home secretary Priti Patel and her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin stressed their “shared commitment to returning boats in the Channel to France, rather than allowing them to reach the UK”, as they signed an agreement to create a Franco-British intelligence unit.

But refugee charity Care4Calais criticised the move, saying: “They want to show they can eradicate the migrant ‘problem’ in the area. But these are people, not a ‘problem’, and the dire circumstances that brought them here are much worse than any political inconvenience.”

The new intelligence unit, staffed by UK and French officers, will “collate, centralise and analyse operational intelligence” to prevent crossings from taking place and to dismantle the gangs behind them, the Home Office says.

Numbers of migrants trying to cross to Britain have surged during lockdown, and at least 2,400 have made it this year, some taking on the death-defying journey in kayaks and even a paddling pool.

The highest number so far to get to the UK in a single day was 166, early last month.

On Sunday, it’s thought up to 200 migrants attempted the crossing. The UK coastguard coordinated a huge search-and-rescue operation with the Border Force, Kent Police, lifeboats and helicopters, after boats were spotted sailing from France.

French authorities later said they had returned 45 people to France.

Two days ago, more than 500 people were evicted from a refugee camp in Calais in one of the biggest operations of its kind since the closure of the city’s “Jungle” in 2016, sending them to reception centres.

Ms Patel hailed the intelligence agreement – signed following a meeting in France with Mr Darmanin, the French interior minister – as a “new operational approach”.

She said she had seen the significant work in Calais to address the “unacceptably high” numbers of small boats.

“But despite all of the action taken by law enforcement to date – intercepting the boats, making arrests, returning people to France and putting the criminals responsible behind bars – the numbers continue to increase.

“This simply cannot be allowed to go on. Today, I have signed an agreement with the French to create a joint intelligence cell which will crack down on the gangs behind this vile people-smuggling operation and impressed on my French counterpart the need to stop these illegal crossings for the benefit of both our countries.”

Before the meeting Care4Calais appealed to the politicians to discuss “a real solution – a safe and legal way for people to claim asylum so that this untenable situation at our border can actually be resolved”.

It is not clear whether the new agreement includes specific measures to return migrants picked up in UK waters to France.