With the stance towards migrants tightening, Europe is facing a number of internal challenges, including agreements between France and the UK regarding attempts to cross the English Channel, legal action against those who encourage migration, and the prosecution of smugglers who help migrants reach Europe.
UK to pay France £16 million for patrolling Channel beaches
The negotiations between France and Britain over the funding of beach patrols were on the brink of collapse amid concerns over the number of small boat interceptions and the safety of asylum seekers in French waters. However, the UK has decided to pay France an extra £16.2 million to ensure police patrols continue patrolling the English Channel beaches and deter small boat crossings, after negotiators failed to agree on a permanent deal, worth £478 million, by midnight.
This two-month interim agreement was reached after French negotiators refused to agree to the UK’s demands for further intervention and patrols to stop asylum seekers from reaching the UK via the English Channel.
Paris, for its part, is concerned that the UK’s demands could put the lives of asylum seekers and French officers at greater risk. This episode is the latest twist in discussions between the two governments over how to stop unauthorised small-boat crossings and who should bear the bulk of the costs.
“The Home Secretary is driving a hard bargain with the French to deliver the best deal for the British people, prevent migrants from boarding boats and to save lives. We want more bang for our buck. We don’t want there to be a surge in migrant crossings whilst negotiations continue. We are looking for a significant increase in the number of enforcement officers on French beaches,” a Home Office spokesperson said.
The UK currently covers nearly two-thirds of the annual cost of patrols in northern France. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is seeking to link the next three years of funding to an increase in interceptions of small boats and requires regular information on the number of interventions carried out.
Some 700 French officers from units specialising in intercepting small boats will continue to patrol the French coast. Surveillance and vehicles, including vans and buggies, will continue to identify and intercept departures.
Migrants in UK sold cheap illegal immigration services
The problem has long been entrenched, with some trying to profit from it; a recent case highlights how two Vietnamese nationals, who had advertised people-smuggling services on small boats via Facebook, were jailed following a joint British-French investigation.
Hoang My Tra Nguyen, 25, of Heathfield Road in Croydon, and Hop Cahn Nguyen, 36, of Grasmere Street, Leicester, arrived in the UK on small boats in January and July 2023 and were arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) in April 2024. On Monday, Hop was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Hoang to 10 years and six months.
In February 2024, Hop was stopped by British transport police officers at Euston station whilst attempting to travel to Birmingham with migrants who had recently crossed the English Channel in a small boat, the NCA reported. Following the arrests in April, officers seized numerous mobile phones, SIM cards and account books containing detailed records of names, expenses and routes.
Hilary Ryan, a specialist prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the pair tried to “undermine our borders”. Ryan added: “Their operation was sophisticated and they stood to make hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the sentence reflects that.”
They pleaded guilty to assisting illegal immigration at Croydon Crown Court in August 2024, having advertised small boats from France to the UK.
The NCA stated Hoang and Hop managed Facebook accounts alongside another man, who is awaiting extradition to France, which featured video clips of people travelling in a small boat and provided UK mobile numbers to arrange the journeys. Messages included: “I still have a few direct flights to the UK. Passport available everyone” and “Orders for you guys who want to enter Europe at a cheap price… you guys hurry and get a seat.”
“These crossings are extremely dangerous and the defendants had no interest in the safety of those making the journey aside from ensuring they received their payment and made significant profits,” NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar said, adding that the pair advertised “cheap prices and urgency to entice people looking for a new life.”
Calls for deportations from Rome to Stockholm
The Italian government is actively using administrative barriers (“Piantedosi decree”) to stop ships operated by NGOs that rescue migrants. It accuses NGOs of encouraging people to board leaky boats in the hope of being rescued. The authorities detain vessels, as in the case of the Geo Barents, send them to distant northern ports, or fine them for “disobeying” orders from the Libyan coastguard.
Simone Pillon, a lawyer and co-founder of the Family Day organisation, as well as a former senator, has criticised the courts’ decisions:
“The government is deporting dangerous illegal immigrants, as required by law, but judges are overturning the deportation orders. The government is transferring illegal immigrants to Albania, as required by EU rules, but judges are overturning the transfer orders. The government confiscates vessels bringing in illegal immigrants, as required by security decrees, but judges overturn the confiscation orders. What should the government do in this situation? Open the first reception centres in court buildings? Or directly in the homes of left-wing judges?”
Human rights activists insist that saving lives at sea is an international obligation that takes precedence over any national decrees. Recent rulings by Italian courts have sided with the volunteers, recognising the detentions of vessels as unlawful. The judges emphasise Libya is not a safe country, and that demands to hand migrants over to the Libyans contravene human rights.
In the meantime, Sahra Wagenknecht, a former Member of the European Parliament and the Bundestag, and leader of the BSW, has stated on her X account that “healthcare costs in Germany are rising rapidly.” She noted that, despite the fact that insurance premiums have risen sharply in recent years, “the quality of medical care is getting worse and worse.”
“Millions of refugees receive free health insurance, whereas his wife will soon no longer do so: this will undoubtedly ‘boost’ public sentiment in Germany,” she said.
As part of their “reform plans,” the SPD and the CDU/CSU bloc intend to abolish free family insurance for low-income couples covered by statutory health insurance. In practical terms, this means that 2.5 million families will have to pay an extra €225 per month in future.
On 31 March, the Renew Europe political group posted a letter on its X account addressed to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, in which politician Charlie Weimers for Sweden is criticised for his comments regarding an “era of deportation” after the European Parliament’s vote to tighten measures against migrants.
“So, now they want to *sanction* me. So much for democracy and freedom of speech. “Deportation rhetoric” isn’t hatred. It’s enforcing the law and sending people home who have no legal right to stay. Every real country on Earth does it. So should the EU. The centre-left is once again weaponising the Holocaust to smear political opponents. Funny how they stay silent when their allies on the Left shelter LFI – one of the most anti-Semitic parties in the entire European Parliament,” Weimers stated on his X account.
On social media, there are also a lot of videos showing a dismissive attitude towards the indigenous population in Europe. Some of them show a Polish worker filming a migrant lying down at his workplace whilst everyone else is working.
Another video, posted on the account of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, is captioned: “Exiled Iranian calls out the useful idiots who marched against the imaginary ‘far right’ in London. He ex
plains that the capital is already under Sharia law via Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer. He says what is happening in Britain is how Iran fell 50 years ago, and that he has had to flee London to escape it.”
