‘It’s not our job to stop the boats’ says French border policeman as he admits he ALLOWED a family to leave ‘because they touched my heart’: Fury at attitude of guards supposedly paid out of £480m by UK taxpayers to head off migrants
- Rishi Sunak agreed in March to give France £480million to help stop the boats
- French police officer admits ‘we don’t stop migrants’ and ‘wants to let them be’
French police have admitted they are letting some migrant families cross the Channel to the UK because ‘we cannot welcome all the misery in the world in France’.
This is despite UK taxpayers funding Rishi Sunak’s £480million deal with Emmanuel Macron in a bid to stop the crossings.
The Prime Minister struck a three-year deal with the French President in March to inject hundreds of millions of pounds into France. The money will partly be used to increase patrols and enhance technology along the beaches.
The building of a new detention centre in France was also included in the package deal.
Senior Tory MP David Jones vented his fury yesterday after a police officer from the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité division admitted ‘we don’t stop the migrants’.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struck a three-year deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to inject hundreds of millions of pounds into France
Border Force officials on Hurricane Typhoon and Volunteer escort 250 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent. Over 21,000 migrants are reported to have crossed the channel so far this year
A police officer from the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité division admitted ‘we don’t stop the migrants’ and admitted letting one family go because ‘they touched my heart’
‘It simply confirms what many of us have long suspected: that the French commitment to stopping the vile people-smuggling trade is little more than a façade,’ he told The Express.
‘President Macron must now intervene. He should instruct his lackadaisical gendarmes to do the job they are paid to do and start policing the beaches properly.
READ MORE Still queuing for the dinghy gangs: Just a day after six people died crossing the Channel, dozens of migrants are seen heading for the coast in their desperate quest to reach Britain
‘Alternatively, he should immediately return the hundreds of millions of British taxpayers’ pounds he has been so happy to accept.’
The senior French police officer even admitted how he let one family go because ‘they touched my heart’.
He added: ‘When I see those migrant families I just want to let them be – I should not say that – but we cannot welcome all the misery in the world in France.’
The revelation came following an investigation by The Express.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘We work closely with our French partners, and they are committed to helping us stop the boats, with their efforts ensuring that more than 15,000 migrants have failed to reach the UK this year.
‘Since our landmark agreement last November, embedded observers have been deployed regularly on both sides of the Channel, and in March we agreed to more than double the number of personnel deployed in Northern France.
‘The overwhelming majority of these behave with the utmost professionalism, but we will look into any reports that small minorities are falling short of the standards expected on both sides.’
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman admitted ‘we’re in no doubt on both sides there is certainly more we can do’.
‘Obviously, we are in touch with our French counterparts about taking further action to prevent crossings,’ he said.
‘I think it is still worth noting that, for the first time ever since these sorts of crossings began, the numbers are tracking lower than they did the previous year. That is notable and significant.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struck a deal with Emmanuel Macron in March to inject £480million into France over the next three years in a bid to stop the boats from crossing the English Channel
‘But, obviously, there is much more to do to get this situation under control. So, we will continue to work very, very closely with our French counterparts to up interceptions, both at the channel but further upstream as well.’
Mr Sunak has made stopping boat arrivals one of his five key priorities after the number of migrants arriving on the south coast of England soared to more than 45,000 last year.
Standing alongside Mr Macron in March to announce the deal following talks in Paris, Mr Sunak said ‘we don’t need to manage this problem, we need to break it’.
‘Today, we have gone further than ever before to put an end to this disgusting trade in human life,’ he said.
‘Working together, the UK and France will ensure that nobody can exploit our systems with impunity.’
However, last month figures showed France is intercepting fewer than 50 per cent of Channel crossing attempts in the last year.
Figures obtained by The Telegraph show just 45.2 per cent of migrants have been stopped since January, in comparison to 45.8 per cent the year before.
Tim Loughton, a former minister and a member of the Commons home affairs committee described the figures as ‘disappointing’ given the ‘huge investment’.
All 39 migrants on board the Bibby Stockholm had to be evacuated last month just four days after first stepping foot on the barge in Portland, Dorset, following the discovery of legionella bacteria
‘Clearly we are paying more money for the French police to continue failing to stop even more migrants on the beaches before they get into the water. We need an immediate value for money assessment of exactly what the British taxpayer is getting for their money,’ he added.
Mr Sunak’s attempts at getting a grip on Britain’s migration problem has hit a couple of snags recently.
Last month, migrants aboard Bibby Stockholm were evacuated just four days after first stepping foot on the barge in Portland, Dorset, after deadly legionella bacteria was found in the water system.
The Government’s asylum deal with Rwanda remains in legal limbo, too, after it was declared unlawful on human rights grounds by the Court of Appeal in June.
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