Sajid Javid has signed a new deal with his French counterpart to return migrants who illegally cross the Channel back to France.
The agreement saw the first handful of migrants returned yesterday and is part of a new action plan which is backed by £6m extra money from the UK government. It was announced yesterday after the Home Secretary met French interior minister Christophe Castaner in London.
The French have agreed they will take back migrants who have been fingerprinted on the so-called Eurodac database. This enables immigration officers to establish if they have already applied for asylum in an EU country or illegally transited through other EU states.
The two governments have also pledged increased surveillance of the Channel by air and boat patrols. Foot patrols across beaches and coastal areas by the French will also be ramped up.
Britain has so far deployed two Border Force cutters alongside a Navy patrol vessel, which is due to be replaced by an additional two cutters when they return from helping the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean next month.
Earlier this week, refugee charities warned there were 3,000 migrants in northern France and Belgium “desperate” to get to the UK and who would not be deterred by Britain’s Navy and Border Force patrols.
Under the agreement signed yesterday, the UK will pay the French £6m to support its action plan, of which £3.2m will be used for equipment and measures to combat migrants using small boats.
This will include CCTV, night-vision goggles and number plate recognition technology.
Additional security cameras will be placed at French ports and in areas where migrants may attempt to embark boats, and will feed live CCTV footage into the UK-France Coordination and Information Centre in Calais which is staffed by both British and French agencies.