U.K. not cooperating enough to curb migrants crossing the Channel: French report

UK & France struggle to coordinate efforts to reduce illegal Channel crossings, resulting in "uncertain effectiveness" of policies.

The U.K. is not sufficiently coordinating with France in efforts to reduce the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, according to a French report that points to the “uncertain effectiveness” of illegal migration policies.

France is “struggling to develop operational cooperation arrangements“ with the U.K., according to the report published on Thursday by France’s Court of Accounts, a body in charge of auditing the use of public funds, independent from the government and Parliament.

The report refers in particular to a joint intelligence unit created in 2020 to fight human smuggling and reduce the number of people risking their lives to cross the Channel illegally. In 2022, it helped dismantle seven illegal migration networks.

The Court “found that the British don’t provide usable information on the departures of small boats, and give very general, first-level information that has not been counter-checked.”

Information on the circumstances in which migrants arrive and their nationalities “appears to be very patchy,” the report said. “The relationship between France and the U.K. is therefore unbalanced in terms of information and intelligence exchange.”

The U.K. Defence Ministry estimated that crossings of the English Channel by boat increased by at least 58% between 2021 and 2022, a year that saw over 45,000 migrants arrested on British shores.

The report said 56% of crossing attempts were prevented that same year — unchanged from the year before.