Britain pays France £650 million – but they’re not stopping migrant cro | Politics | News

When will we find out? Official figures show France is now intercepting fewer small-boat migrants than ever before.

The number of people caught trying to cross the English Channel in the first three months of the year was the lowest on record. Between January and March, only a third of migrants trying to cross illegally were stopped. And now we’re about to pay the French another £650 million to stop the problem.

Negotiations on a new agreement have reached their final point.

In 2023, Rishi Sunak signed a three-year, £475 million deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to increase the number of police officers apprehending migrants on French beaches.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood is pushing for a change that would link the next round of funding to the French meeting higher prevention targets and providing daily reports on operations.

The talks were led by officials from Britain’s border security command, led by Martin Hewitt, who left office earlier this month with just 18 months left in his three-year term.

However, according to a source in the French interior ministry, the negotiations ended in failure.

Ministers are now said to be reviewing the details.

British government ministers and officials are understood to be disappointed by the drop in the rate of migrants intercepted by the French.

Frustratingly, French police officers continue to be filmed standing on beaches seemingly powerless to stop smugglers’ taxi boats picking up migrants.

There have been only three interventions at sea since Mr Macron announced last July that France would change its maritime policy to allow officers to board small boats.

Last week a French minister expressed concern about Britain’s demands.

Xavier Ducept, France’s junior minister for the sea, told the French parliamentary commission of inquiry that the British wanted to show the public that the funds were being used effectively.

He said the British should not impose unrealistic targets that could put migrants’ safety at risk. “What we want… is for the British to contribute to the financing of very expensive wiretapping systems.”

The British reportedly rejected many French requests for funding.

These included covering the salaries of staff at a future detention center in Dunkirk, paying for reserve forces to patrol beaches and funding riot police barracks.

Of the 6,233 transit attempts in the first 12 weeks of this year, approximately 2,064 (33.1%) were stopped.

This is down from 35.1% last year and 36.7% in 2024.

This was the lowest catch rate since small boats started arriving in 2018, down from a peak of 46.9% in 2023.

Only 23.2% of migrants trying to cross the Channel during the four weeks ending March 22 this year were prevented by French police.

More than 4,400 migrants crossed the Channel this year by the end of last week.