“We simply can’t solve a challenge like this by acting alone, and telling our allies that we won’t play ball,” Starmer said.
The prime minister said the plan would “break the model” of people smuggling despite the relatively modest scale of the program, while Macron said he believed it would deter would-be smugglers and migrants seeking to make the perilous journey.
It is not known how many would be returned under the program, but initial reports have suggested around 50 migrants could be sent each way per week — only a fraction of the 21,000 who have arrived via the Channel so far this year.
Still, the U.K. prime minister pledged “hard-headed, aggressive action on all fronts, to break the gangs’ business, secure our borders and show that attempting to reach the U.K. will end in detention.”
Domestic pressure
Starmer is under acute pressure to reduce levels of illegal migration, having promised to “smash the gangs” when he came to power last year, and with Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party on the rise. When asked about whether the pilot program spearheaded by the two centrist leaders was ambitious enough, Starmer took a direct dig at Farage, saying he had been “working hard” to get an agreement “while others have been taking pictures of the problem.”
Though the issue of cross-Channel migration is less politically sensitive for Macron than Starmer, the French president agreed that the arrival of the so-called small boats was “an essential issue” for both countries and vowed to reinforce efforts “on several fronts.”
