This is the deadliest shipwreck since November 2021. On September 3, twelve people died while trying to cross the Channel to England. With the rescue services after the tragedy, the resigning Minister of the Interior called for “reestablishing a classic migration relationship” with the United Kingdom, by establishing a new “migration treaty”. A subject that regularly comes back on the table, while 2024 is now the deadliest year in the Channel.
Cooperation complicated by Brexit…and years of conservative politics
Today, what does cooperation between the two countries look like on the migration front? “Brexit has not caused any fundamental change in our relations with the United Kingdom on this front,” explains Matthieu Tardis, co-director of the Synergie Migration research center. Indeed, located outside the Schengen area, the country was already not participating in the majority of European migration policies.
For Camille Le Coz, associate director at the Migration Policy Institute, while Brexit has obviously not made relations between London and its neighbours on the subject any easier, they have also been complicated by years of conservative politics. “These years of conservative government have been distinguished by an extreme politicisation of this subject of immigration, with populist measures that have gone much further than those of any other European country,” she explains.
The latest measure: the signing of an agreement to expel migrants who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom to Rwanda, so that they could apply for asylum there. “This agreement goes against the principles set out in the EU and was perceived by the European Commission as a completely unilateral initiative,” notes Camille Le Coz. With the arrival of Labour’s Keir Starmer at the head of a new government at the beginning of July, the bill was immediately abandoned.
A security response, without a global strategy
Rather cold, cooperation between France – more broadly the European Union – and the United Kingdom therefore focuses essentially on the security aspect, to combat people smuggling networks and human trafficking. “To simplify, the United Kingdom transfers money to France so that it can strengthen controls in Calais”, summarizes Matthieu Tardis. It was in November 2022 that the last agreement of this type was concluded: in exchange for the payment of nearly 72 million euros, the French authorities committed to increasing the number of police and gendarmes patrolling the Channel coast by 40%.
A mode of operation called into question by Gérald Darmanin, during his trip on September 3 to Boulogne-sur-Mer. “It is not the tens of millions of euros that we negotiate each year with our British friends and who only pay a third of what we spend, us” who will put an end to shipwrecks in the Channel, he deplored. “This statement by the minister underlines the need for a global response, such as the creation of legal immigration channels, for example to facilitate the passage of people who have family to join in the United Kingdom”, explains Camille Le Coz.
Pointed out by the Minister of the Interior, the United Kingdom is not, however, the only one responsible for this status quo. “It is a little easy to formulate this request now that Gérald Darmanin has resigned. The subject has been on the table for a while and France has not taken it up either, preferring to pass the buck to the European level,” underlines Matthieu Tardis. For Camille Le Coz, the European Union has also lacked “political appetite” to conclude a global agreement with London in recent years: “The situation between the 27 was already extremely tense around the asylum and migration pact [définitivement adopté en mai 2024]. In this context, it is difficult to negotiate with the United Kingdom when we are already unable to reach an agreement internally.”
The challenge of the new Labour government
The new tragedy that occurred on September 3rd in any case puts this question back on the table, while the Labour Party is now in power. Keir Starmer inherits a delicate situation, with a main challenge: to catch up with the enormous backlog accumulated by the authorities in processing asylum applications. According to figures from the Oxford University Migration Observatory published in July, nearly 120,000 asylum seekers are waiting for a response. A costly bottleneck, particularly in terms of temporary accommodation, which arouses the anger of asylum seekers and associations on the ground.
In his speech to the House of Lords in mid-July, King Charles III had already announced that the Labour government would “modernise the British asylum and immigration system”. A difficult bet, judges Matthieu Tardis: “In the United Kingdom, immigration is such a polarising subject that it has become very difficult to make a pragmatic decision. I fear that Labour will be trapped in this politicisation of the subject, built up by almost 20 years of conservative discourse.”
While the British put the Labour Party in the lead in the last election, breaking with years of Conservative government, the migration issue remains just as explosive in public opinion. The summer was marked by anti-immigration demonstrations and violent riots, led by far-right groups.
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