The first references of migrants between France and the United Kingdom, as part of the Migration Agreement concluded in July on the “One for one” principle, will take place from next week, AFP learned on Saturday from the French authorities.
The first departures from France to the United Kingdom will take place from the “next Saturday,” the French Interior Ministry to the AFP told.
In the United Kingdom, the Ministry of Interior also told AFP that he expected that “the first feedback took place imminently.” “Protecting British borders is our priority,” said the same source.
An “very experimental” agreement
According to the French Interior Ministry, “this will only refer to only a few people.” “We can interrupt the agreement if we are not there,” it was added from the same source, insisting on “the still very experimental side of this agreement.”
Upon arrival in France, migrants will be placed in a accommodation center “where they will be encouraged to accept help with voluntary return” proposed by the OFII (Immigration and Integration Office of France), AFP Leschi, the director of the office office, told AFP.
Those who reject this help and do not fall under asylum can be subject to an OQTF (obligation to abandon the territory), he added.
An agreement denounced by associations
The Franco-British agreement concluded on July 10, regularly denounced by associations, establishes the dismissal in France of the migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom crossing the channel from the French coast for “small ships”, these small boats they use.
More than 30,000 people have arrived in this way on the English coast since January according to the British Ministry of Interior, a record figure at this stage of the year.
Three migrants died and three others “probably” disappeared for two separate attempts to cross the channel between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to an always provisional evaluation of the French authorities.
At the end of this pilot agreement, for each migrant he returned to France, London promised to accept a person in France and have made a request on an online platform.
The objective of this pilot agreement “is to have a deterrent effect at the crossings, on the one hand, opening a path of legal admission to people who wish to join the United Kingdom, on the other hand by providing the readmission in France of those who succeed in crossing,” says a decree published on August 11, which specifies that the two procedures are condemned to balance regular expansion. “
Source: BFM TV
