(AFP) Britain agreed to pay France another 72.2 million euros ($74.5 million) to prevent migrant boat crossings in the English Channel under a new deal signed on Monday that underlines improving ties between the neighbours.
Around 42,000 people — most of them Albanians, Iranians and Afghans — have crossed the Channel to England from France this year.
The figure is well over last year’s 28,561, which was a thousand-fold increase from 2018, when migrants and asylum seekers first began sailing inflatables across one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.
“There are no quick fixes, but this new arrangement will mean we can significantly increase the number of French gendarmes patrolling the beaches in northern France,” Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in a statement after signing the accord with her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin.
