Downing Street has dismissed a French minister’s accusation migrants were crossing the Channel because they are “rarely expelled” from the UK.
France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin accused the British government of making the UK attractive to illegal immigrants after 12 died trying to cross from France on Tuesday.
“Often, you can work without having papers…[and] as there is no common immigration policy with the EU … people try a lot to go to Great Britain because they know that they are probably not deportable from British territory,” Mr Darmanin said, according to French media.
He added people want to reach Britain to reunite with their families or “to work in conditions that would not be acceptable in France“.
But Sir Keir Starmer‘s official spokesman denied the UK’s labour market was a pull factor.
“No, and let’s be clear, the people responsible for this vile trade are the smuggling gangs who make profit and take advantage of vulnerable people and vulnerable situations,” he said.
“And that is why this government is so focused on dismantling their criminal operations and preventing these dangerous journeys taking place.”
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Mr Darmanin also said the EU and the UK need to negotiate a new migration treaty, adding that British payments to France to prevent people coming over illegally only cover “a third of what we are spending”.
Former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak agreed with French president Emmanuel Macron last year to pay £480m to France over three years to tackle small boat crossings.
The funding included a new detention centre in France, hundreds more French personnel patrolling beaches, additional drones, aircraft and surveillance technologies, and increased cooperation with the National Crime Agency and its French counterpart.
Just a day after the 12 people died, including a pregnant woman and six children, 257 migrants who had travelled in five boats arrived in the UK on Wednesday.
At least 30 migrants have died or gone missing while trying to cross the Channel this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The total number of people who have arrived in small boats so far this year stands at a provisional 21,977 – 3% higher than at the same point last year, but 20% lower than this time in 2022.
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Sir Keir met Mr Macron in the summer when they pledged to strengthen cooperation in handling the rising number of migrant crossings.
The Labour government has made cracking down on Channel crossings one of its main focuses but has taken a different approach to the former Tory government.
Labour has abandoned the controversial Rwanda deportation scheme, announced the Bibby Stockholm barge closure and changed parts of the Illegal Migration Act.
They also got rid of the Conservatives’ “stop the boats” slogan in favour of “smash the gangs”.