Zürcher Nachrichten - UK, France sign three-year deal to stop migrant crossings

Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement personnel on the coast by more than half -- reaching 1,400 officers by 2029.

Britain will in return provide up to 766 million euros ($897 million) in funding, though nearly a quarter of that -- 186 million euros -- are conditional on the measures being effective.

The cross-Channel neighbours have wrangled for months over renewing the Sandhurst treaty, which sets out the United Kingdom's financial contribution to French efforts to stop migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing to Britain.

The United Kingdom has accused France of doing too little to prevent would-be asylum seekers from setting off from French shores, with smugglers and migrants taking ever-greater risks to avoid detection.

As a result, London insisted it would only renew the Sandhurst treaty -- first signed in 2018, extended in 2023 and set to expire this year -- if it could impose conditions on how some of its money is used by the French government.

- 'Flexibility' -

"We will now have flexibility to fund things that we know are working," UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Thursday, during a visit to northern France, where she inked the deal with her French counterpart.

According to a French interior ministry document on the accord, if the new measures do not deliver "sufficient results, based on a joint annual assessment, the funding will be redirected to new actions".

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the agreement was key for "combating" and "eradicating" illegal immigration networks.

Even if the conditional portion is not paid, the United Kingdom's core contribution of 580 million euros still represents a 40-million-euro hike on what it paid under the last treaty.

Doctors Without Borders criticised the "results-based" funding scheme, arguing it would not deter people from seeking refuge in the United Kingdom.

The organisation warned the policy would instead "push men, women and children into the hands of smugglers and traffickers and force them to undertake the increasingly dangerous, sometimes deadly, crossings" to avoid being caught.

At least 29 migrants died at sea in the Channel last year, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources.

According to official British figures, 41,472 people reached the United Kingdom illegally in small boats in 2025, the second-highest figure since large-scale crossings were first detected in 2018.

- Starmer under pressure -

The deal's renewal comes at a crunch time for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who faces political pressure to curb immigration.

Starmer said Thursday that Anglo-French work had "already stopped tens of thousands of crossings", and that "this historic agreement means we can go further: ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain's borders".

The centre-left leader is also engulfed in an unrelenting scandal over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Many believe Starmer's political survival depends on his Labour party's performance in local elections in May. Polls indicate that it faces major losses.

Besides the step-up in law enforcement on the beaches, France is looking to deploy drones, helicopters and digital resources to prevent crossings, the roadmap said.

By the terms of the international law of the sea, once a boat has set off from shore, the authorities can only intervene to save people from drowning.

France claims that, since the beginning of the year, arrivals to the United Kingdom have halved compared with the same period last year.

Around 480 smugglers were also arrested in 2025, the French interior ministry says.

W.F.Portman--NZN