Are the Touquet accords living their last years? Four days after the worst migratory drama to have occurred in the English Channel, a European meeting was held on Sunday November 28 in Calais to strengthen the fight “against the networks of smugglers”. Without the British, excluded by France in response to a letter published Thursday by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
>> Follow the meeting on the migration crisis live in Calais
The German, Dutch, Belgian and French ministers in charge of immigration, as well as the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and the Europol and Frontex agencies, also discussed the “working framework with Great Britain”, Gérald Darmanin specified at the end of the meeting. A framework currently governed by these agreements of Touquet, concluded in 2003. Regularly criticized, this treaty which governs migratory flows between France and the United Kingdom is at the heart of the tensions between Paris and London. Franceinfo explains why.
Agreements concluded in 2003 to turn the page on the Sangatte center
Signed on February 4, 2003 by Paris and London, during the 25th Franco-British summit, the Touquet treaty aims to regulate immigration, in particular illegal immigration, in the two countries. It complements the Sangatte protocol, concluded in May 2000. The general principle of these texts is simple: the control of persons leaving for the United Kingdom must be carried out when trains and boats depart from France, and vice versa. . It is for example in this capacity that the British police carry out checks at the Gare du Nord in Paris, and France at the Saint-Pancras station, in London.
The Touquet agreements, which entered into force on February 1, 2004, stipulate that joint controls must also take place in the seaports of the two countries, which have become crossing points for illegal migrants. At the time, it was a question of turning the page of the Sangatte reception center, closed a few months earlier at the request of the United Kingdom, which considered that this center constituted a “reservoir of illegal immigrants tolerated by France”, remember Le Figaro.
The text notably introduces common immigration control offices, known as “juxtaposed”, in the Channel and North Sea ports: Calais, Boulogne-sur-mer and Dunkirk on the French side, Dover on the British side.
A treaty completed several times to respond to the migration challenge
If this reciprocity works without difficulty for legal immigration, it is different for illegal crossings. Thanks to the migratory crises of the 2010s, many candidates for exile in the United Kingdom flocked to the French coasts. This bilateral agreement was then accused of fueling the crisis in the Calais region, by blocking immigration candidates wishing to join the other side of the Channel.
The Touquet Treaty was thus supplemented by other bilateral agreements in 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2018, each time strengthening France’s control and security of the border between the two countries. In return for this surveillance, which is much more sensitive on the French side than on the British side, London pays financial compensation, the amounts of which are regularly renegotiated.
During his 2017 campaign, Emmanuel Macron himself declared that he wanted “put the Touquet agreements back on the table, be able to renegotiate the terms, in particular for minors”. The 2018 agreement (Sandhurst Treaty), the first to be signed after the Brexit vote, provides for“improve the technical and operational management of the common border”. A specific section concerns unaccompanied minors, for whom London had agreed to speed up the processing of asylum applications.
The situation has become even more complex since 2018, with the increase in Channel crossings by migrants from the entire Opal Coast, to bypass the reinforced lockdown of the French port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel. On Wednesday, 27 migrants trying to reach the English coast died in the sinking of their boat, which further fueled tensions between Paris and London.
Agreements under fire from critics …
In France, on the right and on the left, voices are raised to demand the revision of the Treaty of Touquet. Guest of franceinfo on Saturday, the deputy national secretary of EELV, Sandra Regol, pointed out the absence of “political will to renegotiate the Touquet agreements”, denouncing “a kind of barter, where we take a little money, but in exchange we will keep the border”, who “is not up to the French Republic and human rights”.
Candidate for the nomination The Republicans and president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand regularly calls for “redefining the Touquet accords”, even if it means going to “arm wrestling” with London by allowing candidates to cross. “The migrants will take the ferry, it will cost them 15 euros to cross”, rather than being done “racketeering by criminals who ask them for hundreds or thousands of dollars. (…) That Mr. [Boris] Johnson gets his border back! “, he exclaimed on Sunday during the “Grand Rendez-Vous” Europe 1-CNews-The echoes.
Are we going to accept other tragedies in the Channel? It is time for this to end! We have to give the British back their border. If the French trust me, I will denounce the Touquet accords. #LeGrandRDV pic.twitter.com/7wYcJ079Nw
– Xavier Bertrand (@xavierbertrand) November 28, 2021
Brexit also gave the European Union the opportunity to return responsibility for managing illegal crossings to London. “If I remember correctly, the main slogan of the referendum campaign [sur le Brexit] was ‘We are taking back control’. Since the UK took back control, it is up to the British to find the necessary measures to operationalize the control they have taken back. “, squeaked on Saturday the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas.
… but that the government does not plan to denounce
Could France break its commitment and denounce the Touquet agreements? The legal possibility exists. “This Treaty is concluded for an unlimited period and either party may terminate it at any time by informing the other in writing through the diplomatic channel, which shall take effect two years after the date of such notification”, can we thus read in the 25th and last article of the Treaty of Touquet.
This is not the path currently chosen by the government, which fears the creation of“a call for air”, according to the Interior Ministry cited by The world Thursday, if Paris denounces the treaty and announces its desire to return to the British the management of clandestine arrivals by sea. The entourage of Gerald Darmanin pleads for maintaining the bilateral management of the border, while adding a new treaty to it. European dimension. According to this same source in the evening daily, this project would create “legal avenues for asylum seekers such as unaccompanied minors who have family in England or people who have studied or worked in the country in the past. The EU could, in return, accept ad hoc readmissions. “