Riot police will be stationed on French beaches in a bid to prevent migrants from crossing the English Channel illegally under a new agreement with the UK.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is to travel to Dunkirk, which hosts a sprawling migrant camp, to sign a £660 million ($891 million) three-year agreement, which for the first time will involve payment based on results.
Under the agreement, Britain will contribute £501 million to the cost of stationing five police units to carry out enforcement activity on French beaches. The remaining £160 million will be paid only if the tactic is successful in reducing Channel crossings.
The agreement will come into force in summer, when the clearer weather and calmer seas encourage more crossing attempts.
The 50-strong squad of French police officers, trained in riot and crowd control tactics, will be drafted in to handle violent and hostile crowds on the shore, the Home Office said.
The measures will also include increased drone and camera surveillance, as well as helicopter patrols. The number of police, intelligence and military officers stationed on the beaches will rise from 750 to almost 1,100.
The aim of the agreement is to clamp down on so-called taxi boats, which are operated by human trafficking gangs and are sailed along the coast to pick up people at agreed-on spots before making the crossing.
In the past two months, French authorities have stopped six taxi boats, returned all passengers to France and sentenced five traffickers to prison and deportation.
France is to send a new vessel and more than 20 additional maritime officers to search for taxi boats picking up passengers along the country's northern coastline.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said co-operation between the UK and France had “already stopped tens of thousands of crossings”.
“This historic agreement means we can go further: ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain’s borders,” he added.
Ms Mahmood said: “This landmark deal will stop illegal migrants making the perilous journey, and put people smugglers behind bars.”
So far this year, about 6,000 people have crossed the channel to Britain, eliciting public anger at the crossings and the government's continued use of hotels to accommodate the boats' passengers when they arrive in the UK.
Public perception of a broken immigration system has led to a surge in support for the far-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage. The party has pledged to deport 600,000 migrants from Britain.
Last year, London and Paris signed an agreement under which Britain would be permitted to return migrants to France in exchange for accepting asylum seekers with ties to the UK on a “one-in, one-out” basis.
But opposition MPs say the government's pledge to “smash” the human trafficking gangs has failed to make an impact.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the latest agreement with France “hands over half a billion pounds of our money with no conditions”.
“France only prevented a third of embarkations last year and even let those illegal immigrants go to try again,” he added. “France shouldn’t get a single penny unless they stop the vast majority of the boats.”
Refugee rights groups say the new agreement will not work, and that it ignores the desperation that pushes people to pay trafficking gangs to smuggle them across the channel.
“By focusing on policing the channel, the government is treating the symptom, not the cause,” said Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council.
“Policing alone will not prevent desperate people from turning to dangerous small boats in the first place.”
Refugee charity Care4Calais said Anglo-French beach agreements make crossings more dangerous and lead to more deaths in the channel.
“The government continues to do the same thing over and over, and expecting different results, while ignoring the only solution that will stop crossings,” said Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais.
“They do nothing to deter crossings, they only make the crossings that refugees make more dangerous,” he added.
In response to aggressive police tactics, human traffickers have started cramming more passengers on to their boats and taking longer routes, which have been linked to an increase in deaths.
“We have seen this in recent weeks with reports of small boats launching from Belgium. The only way to stop crossings is to open safe routes for refugees to claim asylum in the UK,” Mr Smith said.
He added that the new agreement will not only cost a lot of money, but will lead to an increase in loss of life.
Earlier this month, a Sudanese man was charged over the deaths of four people who drowned after being swept away by strong currents while trying to cross the channel.
