COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Emmanuel Macron to reject Sunak’s plan to solve small boats crisis

French President wants UK to establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers

Emmanuel Macron is expected to reject British calls to return small boat asylum seekers to France, after the UK disregarded his call to establish more safe and legal routes.

The French president will not publicly embarrass Mr Sunak over the issue, which could prove a major stumbling block to UK’s hopes of a breakthrough, when the two men meet in Paris on Friday. But sources made clear he had not waivered in his position.

Ahead of the first UK-France summit in five years, a French diplomatic source said that Mr Sunak’s newly unveiled plan to turn away all migrants on small boats had not changed the dial. “The general assessment has not changed,” they said.

And, in a reference to calls for more small boats to be stopped before they leave French beaches, they added: “You can’t solve the issue only with more police on the coast.”

Paris has reportedly briefed that the summit should be seen as the “beginning of a beautiful renewed friendship”.

It comes just a week after Mr Sunak signed a new agreement with the EU designed to ease tensions over Northern Ireland and just weeks before King Charles travels to France for a state visit.

Mr Macron has previously called on Britain to do more to reduce the “push factors” driving asylum seekers to northern France and the Channel.

“We will not be able to resolve this issue if the way of dealing with the subject of migration does not change on the British side … they have not sufficiently organised legal, stable, secure ways and means to seek asylum in Britain,” he told the European Parliament in January 2022.

A No 10 source said: “Tackling illegal migration is a global challenge and it’s vital we work with our allies, particularly the French, to prevent crossings and loss of life in the Channel. We want to work together with the French so we can build on the joint approach we agreed [on] last year and keep stepping up patrols and enforcement activity to clamp down on the gangs and stop more boats. This ... summit will be an opportunity to do just that.”

When it comes to safe and legal routes, ministers have hailed the arrival of hundreds of thousands from Ukraine and Hong Kong, but those schemes bypassed asylum processes with the creation of bespoke visas that do not grant refugee status.

Home Office figures for 2022 show that 14 times more refugees were granted asylum after turning up in the UK than were resettled by the government. Over 16,600 were granted asylum after travelling to the UK – including many who arrived on small boats – while only 887 refugees were brought to the UK under the government’s flagship UK resettlement scheme. A further 216 people were resettled under the separate community sponsorship scheme, and 22 Afghans who missed the August 2021 evacuation were brought to Britain.

UK to give France 480 million pounds to help stop small boat crossings

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday that Britain will give France 480 million pounds ($577 million) over three years to invest in police, technology and intelligence to help reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving on its shores in small boats.

Sunak has made stopping boat arrivals one of his five key priorities after the number of migrants arriving on the south coast of England soared to more than 45,000 last year.

"We don't need to manage this problem, we need to break it," Sunak said at press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron after the two leaders held talks in Paris.

"Today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to this disgusting trade in human life. Working together, the UK and France will ensure that nobody can exploit our systems with impunity."