COPY LINK

POLITICS

UK and EU eye customs deal on Channel migrants crossings

A grouping of northern European countries on Monday agreed to work on a new "customs partnership" to disrupt the supply of small boats used to carry migrants cross the Channel, Britain's interior ministry said.

Published: 5 March 2024 08:41 CET

UK and EU eye customs deal on Channel migrants crossings

About fourty migrants, fom various origins, hold an inflatable boat before boarding to attempt crossing the Channel illegally to Britain, near the northern French city of Gravelines on July 11, 2022. (Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP)

The UK and France will lead on setting up the new initiative, which will see countries’ customs agencies share information on the shipping of small boat materials more effectively, it added.

It comes as Britain, no longer an EU member since 2020, tries to stem the flow of tens of thousands of migrants arriving each year on its southeastern shores on small boats from mainland Europe.

The journeys have repeatedly proved deadly, with the latest victim a seven-year-old girl who drowned on Sunday when a small boat carrying 16 migrants heading from northern France to Britain capsized.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed at the start of last year to “stop the boats” but nearly 30,000 still made the crossing in 2023 despite stepped up efforts to thwart them.

The issue — a politically potent one given the UK government’s promise to “take back control” of the country’s borders after Brexit — is set to feature prominently in a general election later this year.

The plan for better customs coordination was discussed at a ministerial meeting on Monday of the so-called Calais Group in Brussels.

It comprises the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the European Commission and its agencies, and works to promote cooperation on tackling irregular migration.

“This is an initiative to work with countries throughout the supply chain of small boat materials, and will build on the effective work already being done to prevent small boat launches from northern France,” the UK interior ministry said in a statement.

“Partnership countries and their customs agencies will… be able to share information more effectively to disrupt shipments of small boat materials, preventing them from making it to the English Channel.”

The grouping is set to discuss the plan again at its next meeting in April.

Monday’s gathering also explored working with social media companies to tackle online activity by people-smuggling networks, the UK ministry said.

In addition, participants discussed a recent UK deal with Frontex, the European border and coastguard agency, to exchange information and intelligence and take on the gangs together, it added.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.