Police trained in riot control are to be sent to French beaches as part of a new £662m deal with Britain to stop illegal migrants crossing the English Channel, the BBC reports.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed the three-year deal with France on Thursday to send at least 50 police trained in “riot and crowd control tactics” to deal with violence and “hostile crowds”.
The deal will see France deploy equipment worth millions of euros, including drones, two helicopters and a camera system, to intercept human traffickers and illegal migrants.
Ministers said around £100m of British funding could be redirected or withdrawn after a year if enough crossings are not stopped.
The UK government has not confirmed what targets the French side would need to achieve to keep the funding.
Britain asks France to stop illegal beach crossings
As part of the deal, the Home Office in London says it also expects a center in Dunkirk, originally announced by the previous government in 2023, to be completed by the end of the year.
Once built, the 140-bed facility, staffed by more than 200 officers, will focus on removing migrants from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and Yemen, the ministry said.
These are the top 10 countries of origin of people who crossed the Channel in small boats last year.
Upon signing the agreement, Mahmood said it was a “landmark agreement” that would “really equip us to go after human traffickers.”
She said the UK government was investing money in “the right mix of skills and capabilities that we know will work on the beaches to reduce crossings”.
The two countries have failed to reduce crossings of the English Channel by illegal migrants
Channel crossings have increased over the past three years, with 41,472 people reaching the UK in small boats in 2025. This has sparked criticism that enforcement by French authorities has deteriorated.
On Saturday, 602 migrants arrived in Dover in nine boats, bringing the total number of arrivals so far in 2026 to more than 6,000.
Crossings fluctuate throughout the year, with weather conditions often a factor influencing the number of people making the journey.
Speaking to the BBC in a migrant camp in northern France, one man said he was homeless in the country but could live “like a normal human being” in Britain.
Explaining why she hopes to reach the island nation, one woman said: “There is a democracy in the UK – everything they give you is good, it protects us.”
