Crossings have continued despite London and Paris signing a deal worth £661 million to combat illegal migration
The French police have admitted that they have orders to let illegal migrants get on small boats and head across the English Channel for the UK, according to a video released by British Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp.
In a video posted on X on Wednesday, Philp speaks to members of the French police on a beach in northern France and confronts them about a group of migrants piling onto a small boat just a few yards away.
“Our order is to let them go like that… We just have to say to them, ‘don’t do that, it’s dangerous’,” one officer says.
Speaking to Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine on Thursday, Philp stressed that the French officers could have “easily stopped the migrants” by puncturing the rubber dinghy without putting anyone at risk, as the water was “knee deep.”
“Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, is paying the French government over half a billion pounds, £660 million of our money to the French government to stop these boats,” he said.
The £661 million ($889 million) migration agreement, inked in April, is intended to boost French enforcement action, build up police presence on beaches and increase surveillance with new helicopter units, cameras and drones, according to the Home Office.
Nevertheless, at least 1,487 migrants crossed over to the UK in small boats in the past seven days, with almost 800 arriving on Wednesday, according to government figures.
Successive UK governments have repeatedly promised and failed to reduce the arrivals, despite escalating tensions following a number of attacks and high-profile murder and rape cases involving migrants in recent years.
Just last week, Keir Starmer was replaced by Andy Burnham as prime minister. Starmer lost support following his deeply unpopular handling of anti-immigration protests and his crackdown on internet speech.
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