As part of an agreement with France to stop illegal immigration across the English Channel, the United Kingdom announced on Friday that it will pay $576 million over the following three years.
The agreement was disclosed on Friday in Paris during a joint summit between French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Joint Statement by Both Nations on Illegal Immigration
According to a joint statement from the two nations, the funds would be used to build a new detention facility for migrants in France and to dispatch 500 security and support personnel “to enable the fastest detection of attempted crossings” by small boats.
Following years of tense discussions over immigration, fishing rights, a submarine agreement with Australia, and post-Brexit negotiations, the two presidents emphasized the close ties between their nations on Friday.
“The level of ambition of this plan is exactly what we need,” Macron said, adding, “this is not an agreement between UK and France but between UK and EU.”
Human rights organizations have condemned Sunak for his efforts to halt cross-Channel immigration with a new rule that the UK has described as discriminatory, illegal, and impractical.
The number of illegal immigrants who pay human trafficking organizations to get them into the UK in small, unseaworthy vessels has increased. Several of these boats have sunk, resulting in fatalities.
The joint statement from the Elysee Palace, which was 19 pages long, concentrated on the potential for increased defence cooperation between the two nuclear powers, including everything from the stationing of fighter jets on one another’s aircraft carriers to the joint development of cruise missiles in the future.
The presidents pledged better coordination with regard to Ukraine, particularly with regard to the delivery of supplies and weapons to Kyiv.
They also pledged support for the training of Ukrainian marines in the UK, while offering to pursue “security guarantees” with Ukraine “that will help [Kyiv] to defend itself long-term and to block potential future attacks,” the joint statement said.
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