France has already warned that it does not plan to readmit to its territory migrants who, from its shores, have crossed the English Channel and are later expelled from the United Kingdom. On the eve of the Franco-British summit in Paris, this Friday, Elysée sources yesterday made clear their position on the controversial plan announced Tuesday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to curb illegal immigration.
In Paris they are skeptical about the chances that the drastic British initiative will come to fruition, due to the legal resources that it will provoke. Sources from the French presidency indicated that "it will be a long time before there are planes with migrants to Kigali (Rwanda)", alluding to the agreement between London and the Rwandan government to send rejected immigrants to the African country. They also recalled that the law would not enter into force until September, which gives time to react.
In any case, the French authorities do not expect, a priori, a significant impact on their coasts, since they are not considering welcoming migrants or asylum seekers that London tries to return. "There is no readmission agreement and there will not be one tomorrow," they stressed from the Elysee.
Just yesterday, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, warned from Geneva that such a restrictive future British law "would contravene the United Kingdom's obligations in terms of international and refugee law." “I am deeply concerned about this legislation that would allow the British authorities to detain and remove those who enter the UK on small boats through the English Channel, barring them from further re-entry and applying for British citizenship,” Türk insisted. “Anyone who is forced to leave their country of origin to seek security and dignity abroad has the right to have their human rights fully respected, regardless of their immigration status or the way in which they arrive in a country,” concluded the senior UN official.
The migration issue occupies a prominent place in Sunak's priorities during his visit to Paris, where he will go accompanied by seven ministers, including those of Defense, Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs. This is the first bilateral summit in five years. The last one took place in Sandhurst, south-west London, in January 2018, when Theresa May was the tenant of 10 Downing Street. That long period without summits shows the tensions created by Brexit and the complicated relationship between Macron and Boris Johnson.
Although Paris says a clear no to the readmission of migrants, both parties are negotiating "a strengthening of operational cooperation" to control migratory flows. That affects resources and infrastructure. There could be announcements this Friday. The 46,000 migrants who crossed in small boats in 2022 are an unacceptable volume for London, even more so because it pays Paris tens of millions of euros a year for the cost of monitoring French beaches.
Friday's summit will be followed, at the end of March, by King Carlos III and his wife Camilla's trip to France, the first state visit abroad since he succeeded Elizabeth II to the throne. The British sovereign will then fly to Germany.
Cooperation in defense will be dealt with in depth at the Elysée meeting. The war in Ukraine and the new geopolitical framework push France and the United Kingdom, the only European countries in possession of a nuclear weapon, to collaborate more intensely on various projects that range from an atomic arsenal to anti-aircraft defense or a cruise missile of new generation.
French investment in the UK and British investment in France, as well as the facilitation of youth exchanges, will be announced during the summit. Even on the fishing issue, a serious sticking point after Brexit, France is more satisfied with the fishing licenses its boats obtain, another hopeful sign that the relationship between Paris and London, after years of misunderstanding, will work better with Sunak as prime minister.
