Starmer hails ‘groundbreaking’ deal to return small-boat migrants to France | Immigration and asylum
People who come to the UK through small boats will return to France as part of what Keir Starmer calls the channel that he calls a groundbreaking agreement that he hopes to make a big dent in the number of people passing through illegal roads.
Starmer and Emmanuel Macron announced the plan at the Northwood Military Base at the end of the French President’s three -day state visit on Thursday.
Under the Pilot Out ”pilot plan, the British authorities will detain some of those who have passed the channel and send them back to France, and will receive asylum seekers who can show that they have family connections in the UK in France.
The program is uncertain in terms of scale and timing, but such an agreement between the two countries has emerged for the first time. In addition, the government has increased the number of safe ways that asylum seekers could reach the UK for the first time.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Starmer said, “There is no silver bullets here, but we can finally turn the tables with a combined effort, new tactics and a new level of intention.
“For the first time, the immigrants coming through the small boat will be detained and return to France in a short time.”
While Macron welcomed the plan, Brexit accused the channel in various situations for the number of people passing illegally.
“Many people have announced that Brexit would make it possible to fight effectively against illegal migration,” he said. “However, Brexit Britain does not have an illegal immigration agreement with the EU… It creates an incentive to make the transition, which is the opposite of what Brexit promises.
“The British people sold a lie, that [migration] It was a problem with Europe. We are giving pragmaticism with your government for the first time in nine years. “
The Prime Minister is expected to start in the coming weeks and said it would include a safe and controlled route, “open to those who do not try to illegally illegally.
The channel will recently have a biometry collected at the Manston Immigration Center and those defined as part of the pilot agreement will be detained.
Starmer refused to say how people would be chosen to return to France, but it will be said that those who are thought to have been entitled to come from a safe country because they come from a safe country are unacceptable in England.
Individuals will have the ability to demand exceptional conditions that may mean that they are not suitable for return.
Those who want to travel from France to England will be allowed to apply through an online platform and will be allowed to request asylum in the UK if they succeed.
According to a report at the beginning of this week in Le Monde, the pilot plan will only lead to the return of 50 people a week, which is part of the number.
Starmer did not deny this report, but under the pilot refused to say how many people would be returned.
Macron refused to say if the British authorities promised whether the plan would expand. He said: “I am completely determined to work, because this is our desire and common interest. And I wanted to insist on a point in this pilot project – there is a deterrent effect.
“What we want to do is exactly this deterrent effect, so all these smugglers… We are efficient and have nothing to do to try.”
Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus before implementing the agreement with other European countries want to secure the agreement, he added.
Starmer said: “This will show it to others who try to make the same journey in vain and will no longer exist due to the country -wide pressure we offer to illegal work on an unprecedented scale.”
He also defended the concept of secure asylum ways despite the objections of the populist right.
“We accept real asylum seekers because it is true that we offer a paradise to those who need the most,” he said.
“But there is something else, there is something more practical, so we cannot solve a challenge by moving alone and saying that we will not play ball to our allies.
“Therefore, today’s agreement is very important, because we will solve it by working together as many of our problems.”
The two leaders also agreed to cooperate more closely in using their nuclear deterrence – something called Macron’s history, and if Europe is attacked, it can use the two countries as tandem.
Macron challenged Starmer to recognize the Palestinian province, something France has pushed England for months.
Both men were influential in their praise to each other and in the relationship they created during Starmer’s first year of power.
Macron also received some election advice for the surrounded centrist. “Never give up the charm of populism, which is never rejected science or a transgender of the truth,” he said.
“Populists sold you a response through nationalist withdrawal. Nine years ago budget, migration, growth problems. Are they solved by Brexit? No.”
