New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had his first official telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, a few days after taking office.
Sunak said ties with France "go back centuries" and noted that the two countries work closely on a range of issues, from the war in Ukraine to energy security.
However, the main discussions concerned migrants crossing the English Channel, and on this issue the UK requested France's assistance.
The English Channel is the main route used by Albanian migrants to reach Great Britain. According to British authorities, up to 80% of these new migrants are Albanian.
The UK Conservative government has made repeated promises after Brexit about the need to reduce the flow of migrants coming from mainland Europe to Britain, often in very dangerous conditions, with hundreds of lives lost this year alone.
But the British were unable to prevent the number of people trying to enter Great Britain.
"The Prime Minister stressed the importance for both countries of policing the English Channel to make it completely impenetrable to people smugglers. The leaders pledged to deepen their cooperation to deter deadly Channel crossings that benefit organised crime groups," Downing Street said in a statement.
The French side stated Macron's "willingness" to "deepen bilateral relations between France and the United Kingdom, especially in the areas of defense, strategic issues and energy."
The British government is already financially helping French authorities to better monitor French coasts in order to prevent illegal entry.
But according to The Times, Rishi Sunak wants to go even further. He wants a deal with quantitative targets for intercepted boats, a minimum number of French agents to patrol the beaches and British border guards to accompany them, Euronews reports.
It aims to set targets so that 80% of asylum applications are processed within six months, compared to an average of 480 days, while at the same time the conditions for granting asylum are becoming stricter.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 38,000 migrants have made the perilous English Channel crossing in makeshift boats, more than in the whole of last year, which was also a record, with another 308 arriving on Thursday, October 27, 2022.
According to British authorities, up to 80% of these new immigrants are Albanian.
