All posts tagged: UK-France migrant deal

Blow to Labour as migrant deal with France branded ‘bad value for money’ | UK | News

Blow to Labour as migrant deal with France branded ‘bad value for money’ | UK | News

A top Belgian official has slammed the UK’s new deal with France to stop migrants crossing the English Channel as “bad value for money”. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a three-year agreement with France on Thursday to pay £662 million to support beach patrols as part of efforts to drive down the number of arrivals. It will see the UK hand over £501 million to cover enforcement activity and five police units on French beaches, with an extra £160 million only paid if the new tactics succeed. Carl Decaluwe, governor of West Flanders, warned that the millions of pounds of taxpayer cash could achieve very little, however. He told The Telegraph: “You get nothing; nothing… If you see the results – year after year – new records!” Mr Decaluwe, a former member of Belgium’s centre-right Christian Democratic and Flemish Party, added that he was calling for the France-Belgium border to be closed, which would be a major breach of the Schengen zone, which allows passport-free travel between its 29 member states. “I asked some weeks …

The eyewatering cost of returning each dinghy migrant to France | UK | News

The eyewatering cost of returning each dinghy migrant to France | UK | News

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal allows the UK to return migrants who arrive illegally across the English Channel to France in exchange for admitting an equivalent number of refugees directly from France who have not attempted the crossing. The average cost of returning a migrant is £48,800, meaning one recent flight could have cost taxpayers up to £1.52 million, according to reports. A recent plane departure from Stansted to Paris, as part of the nation’s one-in-one-out deal with France, carried 32 male migrants, 73 guards and two paramedics. According to analysis by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, the cost of enforced removals has increased from around £15,000 per person in the last decade, reports The Sun. It includes case work, the cost of chartering planes and financial support for migrants once out of the UK. The UK must also cover the cost of transporting migrants to and from France under the one-in-one-out deal. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The one-in-one-out scheme is a failure. “No wonder more illegal immigrants have crossed …