Britain and France have rewritten the ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal nearly a year after it came into effect. The treaty, described as ‘groundbreaking’ by both countries last summer, has struggled to stem the numbers of migrants heading from France to England in small boats.
It soon became apparent that the deal contained a loophole that enabled a handful of deported migrants to return to Britain in the back of a lorry. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has agreed with her French counterpart, Laurent Nuñez, to close this loophole by tweaking the treaty to stipulate that its terms apply to any returning migrant regardless of whether they enter a second time by boat or by vehicle.
Frankly, though, with Keir Starmer’s resignation yesterday, the redraft is irrelevant and its promulgation is a sign of how desperate the British government has become. According to the latest government figures, 1,602 migrants have crossed the Channel in 23 small boats in the last week alone, bringing the total for this year so far to more than 10,000. The figure will likely soar in the coming weeks as England and France bask in a heatwave that makes for ideal seafaring weather. Last Monday, 710 migrants arrived in England in a fleet of eleven boats. That is 221 migrants fewer than the total number removed by Britain since the ‘one in, one out’ deal was passed into law. In exchange, Britain has received 896 asylum seekers from France.
Tinkering with useless treaties won’t fool voters
It may not be just the weather which is responsible for the sudden surge in small boat crossings. The numbers began increasing on 15 June, three days after the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact became fully operational. Britain is now the weak man of Europe when it comes to border control.
First adopted in 2024, the pact is supported by right-wing and some centrist MEPS, and reviled by the left and Human Rights organisations. Human Rights Watch has criticised the pact for creating a system under which:
People can potentially be detained for six months for the purposes of identification, asylum processing, and possible deportation.
Last week the EU parliament went even further, passing into law a bill that will accelerate the return of migrants with no legal right to remain in the EU. Euronews, the CNN of the continent, has described the bill as ‘controversial’ because it will allow EU countries to:
Set up deportation centres outside the bloc, known as return hubs through agreements with non-EU countries.
The deal is a triumph for centre-right and right-wing MEPS, who won the vote by 418 to 218 with 30 abstentions. It is also perhaps a lesson for the fractured right in Britain and France as to what can be achieved if egos are set aside and alliances are formed.
Europe’s left was outraged at the passing of the bill, as were some centrists, notably Emmanuel Macron. Criticising Italy and Denmark, the two EU nations most in favour of return hubs, the president of France said he ‘disagreed’ with the law in principle. ‘I think it has nothing to do with European politics,’ he said. ‘I am not sure that this is our Europe.’
Controlling the continent’s borders may not be Macron’s idea of Europe but it is the majority of Europeans. A poll at the start of this year revealed that 71 per cent agreed that more must be done to control the EU’s borders.
Macron and Keir Starmer have failed miserably in this regard, which to a large degree explains the contempt in which they are held by their people. One has just resigned and the other will leave office next year as the most unpopular president in the history of the 5th Republic.
The lesson for their successors is simple: tinkering with useless treaties won’t fool voters. Only by stopping the boats and controlling their borders will they avoid the same fate as their predecessors.
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