Channel migrant crossing - latest: UK officials head to France as PM sets out five urgent steps to ease crisis
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UK government officials and law enforcement are preparing to head to France for talks amid the migrant crossing crisis.
Reports differ as to whether they are travelling there this evening or tomorrow.
Home secretary Priti Patel is set to travel to France on Sunday for discussions after at least 27 people died yesterday crossing the English Channel on a flimsy overcrowded dinghy that capsized.
Boris Johnson has urged his French counterpart to work with the UK on five steps to ease the migrant crisis – including the “swift” return of asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats.
He called on French president Emmanuel Macron to help establish “joint patrols to prevent more boats from leaving French beaches”.
The PM also urged him to help deploy “more advanced technology, like sensors and radar” and – the third step – “airborne surveillance”.
Mr Johnson called for “better real-time intelligence-sharing to deliver more arrests and prosecutions on both sides of the Channel”
The fifth step he outlined in a post on Twitter was to work on “a bilateral returns agreement with France, alongside talks to establish a UK-EU returns agreement” to return migrants who cross the Channel in dinghys and small boats.
He said this would “immediately” and “significantly” reduce the numbers of people who “put their lives in the hands of traffickers”.
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Macron urges PM not to use migrant crisis as means of accessing French waters
Britain is being urged not to take advantage of the migrant crisis, and 27 deaths last night, by trying to use it as means for “political” ends.
Emmanuel Macron is said to have “made it known” to the PM last night “that he expected the British to cooperate fully and that they [should] refrain from instrumentalizing a dramatic situation for political ends ,” the Elysee said on Thursday.
It comes amid an offer from the UK to send police and British border officials into French waters to coordinate efforts to stop migrant boats crossing the Channel to Britain – a suggestion Calais’ MP deemed “crazy” this morning and signalled would not happen.
Mr Macron had previously rejected the offer, claiming it might infringe his country’s sovereignty.
“The [French] president insisted on the need to act with dignity, respect and in a spirit of effective cooperation when it comes to human lives”, the Elysee added in its statement.
Mr Macron also assured his government and people that “France will not let the Channel become a cemetery” and demanded “an emergency meeting of European ministers”, according to Le Monde newspaper.
Watch: Why are so many migrants crossing in small boats?
‘Tragedy we feared’: What French papers said about Channel disaster
Last night’s tragedy in the Channel led the front pages and news websites in France on Thursday morning, with many reporting the president’s comments that “France will not let the Channel become a cemetery”.
Leading national French newspaper, Le Monde, reported on the outrage from activists who gathered in the port of Calais and watched as emergency services carried the bodies of the victims to shore. One person carried a sign saying: “How many deaths will you need?” and Alexine Fougner, who has been helping migrants living in nearby camps, told the paper: “When we say that borders kill, that’s really it.”
Another activist, Olivier Maillard, referred to the small gathering at the port and said “empathy is running out in this country”. He added: “They were men, women, children, humans. We would be 5,000 tonight and we are 50.”
The paper reported that most of the victims were Kurdish, from Iraq or Iran. They noted Emmanuel Macron’s comments about not letting the Channel become a cemetery, saying: “Actually, it’s already become one.”
Holly Bancroft reports:
What the French papers said about the Channel disaster
President Macron reportedly warned Boris Johnson the British should ‘refrain from using a dramatic situation for political ends’
Rees-Mogg condemns ‘evil’ people smugglers in Commons
Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, has mentioned the migrant crisis in his weekly update to the chamber - going with the popular government line that ministers must deal with the “evil” of people traffickers.
He said the criminal are “entirely unconcerned about human life” and they must be stopped in order to reduce the number of deaths caused by small boat crossings.
Mr Rees-Mogg referred to the “terrible situation in the Channel yesterday” as he took questions from MPs.
He said: “The priority of the government must be to prevent deaths and to take every step possible to do that. The main way to stop it is to stop the boats setting off, that must be the priority and it is why the government has offered to help the French in any way that we can to stop those boats launching.”
Mr Rees-Mogg added: “The evil of what happens is the people traffickers, the people smugglers, who take large amounts of money to put people on unsafe boats to push them out to sea at the risk of their lives entirely unconcerned about human life, and we must deal with them and make their business model fail and that way we will save lives.
“I did announce that the Borders Bill will be coming back and I hope that the Opposition will seriously consider supporting those many measures and supporting the third reading, which will help us ensure safer borders.”
The shadow Commons leader responded in due course.
Open safe and legal routes to UK and tackle traffickers, Labour urges Patel
Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire said the capsized migrant boat on Wednesday should be viewed by the government as a “poignant wake up call” to deal with small boat crossings.
“This tragedy reminds us of the risk to life in these perilous waters,” the shadow Commons leader told MPs, adding: “For some of us we are already wondering if they are relatives of our constituents who have been trying to be reunited with them and that is quite hard to take.”
Ms Debbonaire urged the government “to act to take this matter seriously to prevent people from dying in these dangerous waters”, before issuing Priti Patel some words of advice.
“Safe and legal routes, tackling the traffickers, reversing the cut on overseas aid, working constructively with our overseas partners, these are four things the government could and should be doing today,” she said, “and I very much hope they are part of what the home secretary speaks about in her remarks later this morning.”
Image of deflated boat carrying 27 migrants who died shared online - report
A picture of what is being described as what’s left of the boat involved in the death of 27 people in the Channel has been shared online by Sky News.
It shows an almost entirely deflated dinghy-like vessel, floating in the water.
The boat, which some reports suggest may have been struck by a container ship, causing it to deflate and sink, was carrying those who died on Wednesday night – with official figures from Lille suggesting this included 17 men, 7 women and three children. One of the woman was pregnant.
Just two men escaped from the inflatable craft.
French authorities have begun working to identify those who lost their lives.
Patel speaking with French counterpart to discuss Channel tragedy
Home Secretary Priti Patel was today speaking by phone with her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin to discuss the Channel tragedy, writes our political editor, Andrew Woodcock.
Downing Street said she would want to discuss the offer of UK personnel to take part in joint patrols on French beaches, which has so far been rejected by Paris.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said that the prime minister believes that setting up facilities in northern France to provide a safe route over the Channel would simply provide another “pull factor” for migrants.
He said the UK was instead focused on providing “upstream” access to safe routes to Britain and other European countries nearer to migrants’ home countries.
“All countries have a responsibility to provide safe routes for those most at risk,” said the spokesperson. “That is what the UK is doing with Syria and more recently Afghanistan.
“That is how we have resettled 25,000 refugees and provided costed support for them in communities.”
The spokesperson was unable to give a date for the commencement of the promised resettlement scheme for 20,000 Afghans, saying only that the details of the operation were still being worked out with the UN High Commission for Refugees
No 10 says £54m intended to intercept boats
No 10 has said the £54m being paid in instalments to assist the French with the migrant crisis was designed to help “intercept” boats of migrants seeking to reach the UK.
Asked what more the UK government would like to see France do to tackle the problem, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We’ve provided the £54m so they can put in more resources, both on the beaches but beyond that as well to incept those asylum seekers that are making the crossing and to clampdown on the criminal gangs.
“We continue to offer more resources and personnel to the French in terms of things like joint controls, which continues to be an open offer and we know that discussions are ongoing on that.
“And we recognise that on our side we need to take longer term action which is why we have our (Nationality and Borders) Bill to break the model.”
Starmer: Patel ‘not achieving anything’ on Channel crossings
Keir Starmer has accused Priti Patel of coming up with “grand statements” on the tragedy in the channel but “not actually achieving anything”.
Speaking to the BBC, he said the home secretary was “playing to the headlines”.
Priti Patel calls for ‘coordinated international effort’ to tackle Channel crossings
Priti Patel has confirmed that she made a “very clear” offer to French counterpart Gerald Darmanin in a phone call today of UK personnel to undertake joint patrols on French beaches to prevent small boat crossings.
Addressing MPs, Ms Patel said that a “co-ordinated international effort” was needed to target people-smugglers, and told the House of Commons that she had also been speaking to ministers in Poland, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Greece.
“People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, and nobody needs to flee France in order to be safe,” said the home secretary.
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