The extra cash will go towards fencing, CCTV and other detection technology in Calais and other ports, possibly including Dunkirk. It will also be used to help relocate migrants from the port towns to other parts of France.
The measures have included building a 1km-long concrete wall designed to prevent migrants and refugees getting close to the roads used by trucks approaching the port. As well as pressing for an increased contribution to such costs, the French government has been urging the UK to set up a joint operation to process asylum seeker claims in Calais. The proposal could form part of a new treaty β effectively an updated Le Touquet agreement, under which British border checks are carried out in France.
There are around 1, refugees in Calais, including at least 70 unaccompanied children, and a joint processing system could provide a legal route to Britain for some of them. Just as we invest in our borders around the rest of the UK, it is only right that we constantly monitor whether there is more we can be doing at the UK border controls in France and Belgium to ensure they are as secure as possible.
The announcement will form part of a package of measures to be announced by May and Emmanuel Macron to reinforce the close relationship the countries will continue to have after Brexit. The pair will have lunch together, before travelling to Sandhurst, where the French president will be greeted with a guard of honour. They will hold a bilateral meeting, then attend an evening reception at the Victoria and Albert Museum. French feeling has been rising against the accord for some years because it leaves France to cope with the thousands of migrants and refugees trying to reach Britain who remain stuck, in squalid conditions, on the north French coast.
As a bilateral agreement the accord is not directly affected by Brexit. But politicians, including President Emmanuel Macron, have called for its renegotiation. Under the new, legally binding treaty, Britain will agree to accelerate procedures for accepting legitimate asylum seekers currently blocked in Calais , including unaccompanied children and those seeking to join their families in the UK, and will pay more for transport, security and border maintenance in the port. France is Britain's third-largest export market.
