Refugees: France

(asked on 23rd January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Home Secretary on 19 January (HCWS415), whether they sought and were given guarantees that no excessive force would be used against refugees and migrants by authorities in France as part of their supplementary agreement.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 29th January 2018

The UK is fully committed to transferring the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 as soon as possible

As part of the Sandhurst Treaty, signed between the UK and France on 18 January 2018, we committed to deploying a UK Liaison Officer to France by 1 April 2018 to facilitate cooperation on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We already have secondees based in Italy and Greece working on transfers of unaccompanied children to the UK under both the Dublin Regulation and section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016.

However, as set out in our published policy statement, it is for France, Greece and Italy to refer potentially eligible children under section 67 of the Immigration Act as the children are on their territory. The UK must operate within the national laws of our partner countries.

In addition, after extensive discussion with France, Greece and Italy, we have agreed to amend the eligibility date on an exceptional basis to ensure we can transfer the circa. 260 remaining unaccompanied children and meet our obligation under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. The Government had previously insisted on the previous eligibility date of 20 March 2016 to avoid establishing an open-ended relocation scheme from Europe, as this would increase the pull factor that puts children’s lives at risk.

The UK and France share a special relationship and have a strong track record of cooperating with France to manage migration and to protect our shared border. The primary responsibility for refugees and migrants lies with the authorities of the country in which they are present. France has many of the same international obligations towards those on its territory as the UK, and President Macron has made clear that French authorities should behave in an exemplary manner.

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