France urged the UK to review its asylum system for migrants and sign border security pacts also with Belgium and the Netherlands.

The purpose of this request is to prevent people from putting their lives in danger by crossing the English Channel in small boats to get to the UK..

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Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin said in an interview with the Financial Times that such moves would be in addition to a revised agreement signed in November, under which the UK would increase payments to France by about 15% to? 63 million. a year to finance an increase in the number of officers patrolling French beaches from 200 to 300. He spoke with approval of the agreement.

However, this was said only a few hours before four people died off the coast of Kent, trying to cross to the UK from France in the cold.. It was last Wednesday.

In a joint statement following the latest deaths, French Interior Minister and British counterpart Suella Braverman said the events highlight the need for increased cooperation between London and Paris through mechanisms such as the renewed pact.

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Darmanin noted at the same time that crossings on small boats are shifting from the French port of Calais.. According to him, half of them are now sent from Belgium, in addition, networks of human traffickers also operate from the Netherlands..

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Darmanin said a new asylum treaty is needed between the UK and the EU, not just France, to establish legal entry routes and an organized deportation system.

“We absolutely agree to take back part of the migrants heading to Britain, provided that it is not only France who does this,” he stressed..

“Such a system would remove some of the incentives to cross the English Channel,” he says.. - Now people have no other choice but to cross in small boats.

Separately, the French government is trying to tighten its own immigration rules to address long-standing problems such as the failure to enforce most deportation orders and the reliance of sectors of the economy on an illegal migrant workforce..

Darmanin and French labor minister Olivier Dussopte tasked with pushing immigration bill through parliament starting in January. But to get it passed, they will have to win over opposition MPs after President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance lost its majority in June elections..

Darmanin said the bill would make it easier to deport immigrants.

It will also ease the administrative burden for immigrants who are on the path of " The law also provides for a new type of work permit that can be obtained by people already illegally working in France in sectors where there is a labor shortage..

This year, the number of migrants arriving in the UK across the English Channel jumped to over 40,000, the highest number since data collection began in 2018.. In one case last year, 27 people drowned while attempting to cross, despite calling in the British and French coast guards..