EU Refuses Deal with UK on Return of Illegal Migrants

The European Union has reported baulked at calls from Britain to accept the return of illegal migrants who cross the English Channel from France, leading Conservative politicians to accuse the bloc of trying to punish the UK for Brexit.

Over three years after the United Kingdom officially left the EU, Brussels is reportedly continuing to refuse to come to a deal on the readmission of illegal migrants who crossed through the continent before sailing on to British shores. That the bloc won’t even consider negotiation on the topic shows how “incompetent and immoral” the Union is, a top Brexiteer said.

While the EU has been somewhat willing to come to the negotiating table in terms of trade arrangements, it has been intransigent when it comes to accepting migrant returns, reportedly upon the urging of the French government — who may believe they would have the most to lose from any such deal — despite the UK recently agreeing to a payoff of over £500 million to step up enforcement against people smuggling and Channel crossings.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, a meeting between the head of  EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen’s cabinet, Bjoern Siebert and British National Security Advisor Sir Tim Barrow earlier this year resulted in the UK being told that the bloc has no intention of coming to an agreement on migrant returns.

A British memo following the meeting seen by the paper said that Siebert “stressed that the Commission is not open to a UK-EU readmissions agreement.”

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Former government minister Peter Bone said that he believed it was “reasonable” to think that it is an act of punishment for Brexit, saying: “There is no other logical reason for doing it… If they had a returns framework these crossings would not happen. People would not be clogging up the French ports. It would stop the people-smugglers, it would make life in the French ports so much better.”

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Meanwhile, it appears that the British government is expecting the migrant crisis in the English Channel to continue for the foreseeable future, with a leaked memo revealing over the weekend that the Home Office is currently considering using former prisons and military bases to house illegal boat migrants for upwards of the next five years.

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