UK and France Immigration Treaty 2018
France and the UK met on January 18th at the UK-France Summit to sign in a new immigration treaty. The new deal has four key aims for dealing with the migrant crisis. One solution in the treaty is to help asylum-seekers who are looking to join their family in the UK have their cases processed within a month. This is compared to the current wait time of six months. It will also reduce the waiting period for children to twenty-five days. The agreement will also seek to remove anyone in the country illegally, as well as help integrate those who are in the country legally.
In the 2003 Le Touquet agreement, the UK’s border was extended to Calais, France. Calais gained global attention when, at the peak of the migrant crisis, there were some 6,400 migrants that were evacuated from the camp. In 2016, it was announced that France had cleared the camp. In 2017, Human Rights Watch published a report titled Like Living Hell. The report documents the human rights abuses by the police against children and adult migrants in the area. French President, Emmanual Macron has made separate comments,claiming these reports are just lies. In a recent visit to Calais, Macron stated that the will never be another migrant camp set up in Calais again.
Image Credit: Flickr / yoann_lht
Under the original Le Touquet agreement, the UK is allowed to set up border patrol in France and vice versa. This has kept Britain somewhat apart from the European continent. Although both countries are allowed to withdraw from the treaty, this would be a dramatic and symbolic cut from Britain just as Brexit takes effect. The La Touquet agreement was meant to solve a short-term migrant issue, not be the answer for the crisis that is currently happening. This newly signed treaty is meant to be an addition to the Le Touquet border agreement, rather than a replacement. France would like for Britain to provide more resources to the French towns affected by the migrants crossing. According to French officials, the original La Touquet agreement favors Britain.
