Riot police on French beaches to stop migrants crossing Channel under new £662m deal

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to sign a three-year £662 million agreement with France on Thursday.

The deal could see a 50-strong squad of police officers, trained in “riot and crowd control tactics”, drafted in to tackle violence and “hostile crowds” at the water’s edge, among a series of measures to stop migrants boarding boats.

The Home Office said the number of officers sent to curb attempted journeys from northern France to Britain will also rise by about 42% when the agreement comes into force in the summer.

Part of the funding will be conditional on cutting the numbers of arrivals for the first time since the start of the migrant crisis, the UK Government said.

The news comes after London and Paris previously failed to agree on a new beach patrol deal in a bid to cut crossings.

Instead, Ms Mahmood signed a £2 million-a-week extension to the existing arrangement while a longer-term was thrashed out.

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Under the deal, which will be in place until March 2029, the UK will hand over £501 million to cover five police units and enforcement activity on French beaches – with an extra £160 million only paid if new tactics to curb Channel crossings succeed.

If efforts fail, the additional funding will stop after a year, the Home Office said.

Drone and camera surveillance, as well as helicopter patrols, will be stepped up – with the number of police, intelligence and military officers deployed rising from 750 to nearly 1,100 as part of the deal due to come into force in the summer, typically the busiest time for Channel crossings.

The French will also double down on fresh tactics to tackle so-called taxi boats – where people smugglers try to avoid detection by sending one person sailing a dinghy along the coast alone to beaches where migrants scramble aboard in the water.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said work between the UK and France had “already stopped tens of thousands of crossings” and “this historic agreement means we can go further: ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain’s borders”.

Ms Mahmood added: “This landmark deal will stop illegal migrants making the perilous journey and put people smugglers behind bars.”

Earlier this month, a Sudanese man was charged over the deaths of four migrants who drowned after being swept away by strong currents while trying to cross the Channel.

So far this year, more than 6,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after making the journey, down 36% on the number this time last year, Press Association analysis of government figures shows.