Negotiations between Britain and the European Union on a trade agreement governing relations after Britain’s departure from the European bloc are continuing. The British assured the British Minister of the Interior Priti Patel. She also said that London and Paris had signed an agreement to tackle illegal migration across the English Channel.
“As a government, we have a duty to ensure that these talks continue so that we can reach an irreversible end, which is very clear, but at the same time we are preparing for the end of the transition period as our country expects us to do,” said Patelová of Brexit.
According to the media, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson assumes that he will talk about the dispute over fishing quotas with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen within the next 48 hours.
Britain and the European Union have only days left to reach an agreement on future relations. They have the document approved by both parliaments by the end of the year. If this is not achieved, tariffs and quotas will complicate trade across the English Channel from January.
In recent weeks, although British and EU negotiators have finalized a large part of the multi-page joint agreement, fishing rights, competition rules and dispute settlement supervision remain open.
Dangerous voyages on small boats are increasing
According to Patel, the British-French agreement on migration envisages a doubling of the number of police officers guarding French beaches. New technical equipment will also be deployed, including radars and drones. According to the AP, both countries will spend 31.4 million euros (about 823 million CZK) on these measures. The aim is to close the dangerous road to Britain that smugglers are trying to overcome with migrants in a risky way across the English Channel.
Police detained hundreds of people this year, including children, while trying to get from makeshift camps in the north of France to the south of England by a dangerous voyage via one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Some migrants drowned.
“Thanks to more police patrols on French beaches and better intelligence sharing, we have already noticed that fewer migrants leave French beaches,” she said. According to her, Britain and France intend to continue cooperating next year in order to reduce migratory pressure at the common border.
Many migrants set out in small boat cruises organized by smugglers as traffic between France and Britain declined due to a pandemic and anti-disease restrictions. So far this year, there have been 8,000 people, compared to about 1,800 last year. Last month, after a boat capsized, an entire Iranian family died, including both parents and children aged six and nine. The missing son at the age of 15 probably drowned.
Patel said that the French authorities had so far stopped five thousand migrants on their way to Britain this year and that in the last ten years the United Kingdom had provided France with around £ 150 million to solve the problem. According to her, the concentration of efforts to stop small boats means that the number of migrants trying to cross the strait in trucks is increasing. According to Patel, Britain also plans to introduce new rules on asylum next year.
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