Anglo-French talks over migration deal hanging in balance | Immigration and asylum

Anglo-French talks on a migration agreement on Wednesday night was locked with negotiators about how much negotiators would pay for the cost of policing small boat crossings.

Keir Starmer hoped to announce a return agreement by the French President Emmanuel Macron, as the closure of a three -day state visit, after passing the channel, Britain would send some asylum seekers back.

However, just a few hours before the start of a binary summit on Thursday, a helpers on both sides, money, potential legal challenges in France and opposition from other European countries, including a few important obstacles, he said.

A British official added that the talks were “complex” and “liquid ve and that they should be accepted not only with France but also in consultation with other EU countries.

Downing Street spokesman said the Prime Minister hopes to make “concrete progress” on a number of issues, including irregular migration at the summit of Thursday.

Meanwhile, a French source said that more money demands to help policing on the northern shore of Paris were “clearly politically sensitive to the UK.

Macron’s visit continued on Tuesday with negotiations between the two leaders in the Downing Street, and then visited the British Museum by both men to officially announce Bayeux Goblen’s loan to England.

The visit was symbolically important to the British Prime Minister who wanted to show that the EU’s “reset’ helps recover good relations with British’s main European partners.

However, it is also full of complexity, not in irregular migration, which causes significant problems to both leaders in domestic voters.

Macron and Starmer spent most of their time in Downing Street, discussing illegal migration on Wednesday. Never 10 spokespersons said: “Leaders agreed to fight against irregular migration and the threat of small boat crossings.

Starmer gave priority to signing a “one-single” agreement that could show a family connection with the UK, but to accept asylum seekers who have returned to those who could not.

French newspaper Le Monde Notified on Wednesday The first pilot plan means that Britain will send only 2,600 people back a year – approximately 6% of the total number of transitions. However, the British authorities hope that they can increase these numbers after any pilot plan is finished.

While the negotiations continued until Wednesday evening, the assistants on both sides remained as important areas of dispute, one of them.

Two years ago, the UK signed an agreement to pay surveillance equipment such as additional border patrols and drones and night vision binoculars. Since then, the French agreed to cut the boats up to 300 meters from the coast of the sea, and now they want extra financing to pay for police officers, boats and drones to implement this policy.

France is looking for money to expand the Compagnie de Marche, an expert civil servant unit operating in the beaches to combat trade and intersection transitions that use people.

Other obstacles of the agreement include opposition from the Southern European countries of Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta, all of which have high irregular migration. This so -called MED 5 is concerned that the asylum seekers sent back from England to France can later decide to return from Europe to their countries.

Starmer tried to secure the concerns that Macron believes that the British President of the British acted as a “pull factor ve and encourages immigrants to cross the channel and encourage illegal work.

The Prime Minister announced a series of policies to overcome illegal work, including more expenditures to conduct immigration raids. A Deputy Government said: “If the French wanted us to raids more illegal working than us, we would be good with it.”

No 10 spokesman said that Starmer used the meeting on Wednesday to emphasize the action of England on this front.

“The Prime Minister mentioned that the system hardened the system to ensure that the rules are respected and implemented, including a major increase in illegal work arrests to end the wrong promise of the works used to sell gaps on boats,” the person said.

Diplomats, one last concern on the French side, 300 meters away from the shore, the policies of stopping boats may be prone to challenge in local courts, he said.

In a statement on Wednesday, British sources, some European officials said they were pessimistic about the chances of agreed during this visit, but the agreement is still a possibility, he said.

A French diplomatic resource idea described the idea of ​​“reserves hostage ve and said that Britain has given little guarantee how many people will receive, and that the agreement with the wider EU seems as far as usual.