Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of UK Government initiatives to prevent illegal immigration from Calais.

In preventing illegal migration from Calais (and Northern France more broadly), the UK continues to maintain a strong cooperative relationship with France. Most recently, our two countries signed the Sandhurst Treaty at the UK-France Summit in January 2018, which demonstrates our ongoing mutual commitment to the juxtaposed controls and adoption of a ‘whole of route’ approach to illegal migration. €50 million of financial support has been allocated to progress this cooperation. Our cooperation with France includes joint work to improve security at the shared border in northern France; to reduce illegal migration flows towards northern French ports and to support France in returning migrants with no legal right to be in Europe.

At the juxtaposed controls, Border Force officers use advanced detection technology available to identify migrants attempting to reach the UK illegally. In 2015 there were over 80,000 recorded attempts to illegally enter the United Kingdom from Northern France; in 2017 this was reduced to just over 30,000 as a consequence of the security enhancements and camp closures in 2016. This reduction signifies our approach is working, and builds on our cooperation under the Sandhurst Treaty, which has contributed significantly to a rise in the numbers being brought into the French asylum system, and a reduction in migrant numbers located around the Northern French Ports.