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The UK Border Force has returned a group of migrants to France after their small boat got into trouble in the English Channel. This appears to be a departure from past policy, at a crucial time. Channel crossings are rising again as the weather gets warmer, and remain a controversial part of migration discussions.
The Conversation’s Avery Anapol asked Alex Balch, who researches migration and human rights at the University of Liverpool, what this episode means for the future of collaboration between the two countries on crossings.
What happened in the Channel on Thursday?
On the afternoon of July 17, a small boat in French waters near Calais with over 70 people on board was reported as being in difficulty. Tragically, one person lost their life.
British ships (a Border Force vessel and RNLI lifeboat) joined the French coastguard in rescuing some of the people in the water, who were then returned to France. It has been reported this was “at the request of local authorities” (the French coastguard), and it is likely that emergency medical services were required.
UK reports have suggested this is significant because France normally refuses to allow the return of rescued migrants once they are on board UK vessels.
The Home Office has officially denied there has been a change in policy. But they appear to be briefing journalists that this signals a more cooperative approach from the French authorities.
Who is responsible for rescuing migrants in the Channel?
Because the Channel is between the UK and France, both countries have jurisdiction over their own borders and water. But when people need to be rescued, it can be confusing to determine which country is responsible.
Typically, vessels getting into difficulty in French territorial waters would be attended to by French authorities. It is less usual for British ships to be involved in such operations, but it can happen.
In 2021, it was reported that a Border Force vessel entered French waters to pick up migrants in distress. In that case, the rescued migrants were brought to Dover.
There is a long history of cooperation between France and the UK on search and rescue operations in the Channel. This is backed up by various agreements between the two countries, and the duty to rescue if people are in danger of being lost at sea, which is enshrined in several international laws.
Under these agreements, those who rescue assume primary responsibility. So, if a UK vessel picks up people in the Channel, they would normally bring them to the UK’s shores, not to France.
There is still some uncertainty about what happened in this situation, but in my view there may be some opportunism here on the part of the new government, which is keen to indicate there is already improved cooperation with France on migrant returns.
Is this the UK’s new policy for small boat crossings?
It seems unlikely this represents a new policy or was anything more than an example of cooperation in response to an emergency. Keir Starmer’s statements on small boat crossings during the election clearly signalled a continuation of policies focused on border security.
There has certainly been a change of rhetoric around cooperation with the EU over returns and respect for international human rights. But it is not clear yet what this will yield in terms of policy.
One of the first things the new government did was set up a new border security command, with “counter terror-style powers” to crack down on smuggling gangs.
The main difference is the decision to scale down the deterrence method favoured by the previous government, by dropping the Rwanda plan and the blanket ban on asylum applications in the UK for irregular migrants. Starmer has indicated an openness to offshore processing, although this has yet to be announced.
What is the current state of UK-France relations on asylum?
Recent years have seen a series of deals between the two countries, with the UK paying hundreds of millions of pounds to bolster border security in France. French president Emmanuel Macron has tried to put a positive spin on these recent agreements, claiming “we did our best”, but tensions remain.
The French government has repeatedly made clear its position that the UK should open a legal route for asylum seekers in France who wish to seek sanctuary in the UK, to avoid the build up of people on the French coast.
France processes considerably more asylum seekers than the UK (in 2023 167,230 compared to 93,296 in the UK). Due to its geography as a transit country, France’s government argues that it ends up shouldering the consequences of the UK’s unwillingness to take its fair share of refugees who want to cross the Channel.
Meeting at Blenheim Palace in the UK on Thursday for the European Political Community summit, Macron and Starmer agreed to “strengthen their cooperation on irregular migration”.
Read more: We polled EU citizens on what they want asylum policy to look like – their answers may surprise you
How many people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year?
Roughly 46,000 people were recorded crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2022. This dropped to 29,000 in 2023. The numbers so far this year have been slightly higher than the same period in 2022, coming in at just under 15,000. Small boat arrivals make up a fraction of all immigration to the UK.
Alex Balch receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council as Co-Investigator on the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, where he is Director of Research.
