Britain and France have agreed a new three-year deal to stop undocumented migrants making the risky journey across the Channel in small boats, the two sides announced.
Under the deal, France pledged to increase law enforcement on the coast by more than half to fight irregular migration to Britain — reaching 1,400 officers by 2029.
Britain will meanwhile provide up to 766 million euros ($897 million) in funding — though nearly a quarter of that will be conditional.
The cross-Channel neighbours have wrangled for months over renewing the Sandhurst treaty, which sets out the UK’s financial contribution to French efforts to stop migrants attempting the perilous sea crossing to Britain.
The UK has accused France of doing too little to prevent would-be asylum seekers from setting off from French shores, with smugglers and migrants taking ever-greater risks to avoid detection.
As a result, London insisted it would only renew the Sandhurst treaty — first signed in 2018, extended in 2023 and set to expire this year — if it could impose conditions on how British money is used by the French government.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Anglo-French work had “already stopped tens of thousands of crossings”, and that “this historic agreement means we can go further: ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain’s borders”.