Brexit made it harder to tackle illegal migration across the Channel, Emmanuel Macron said as he and Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a “one in, one out” migrant returns scheme on Thursday (10 July).
The French president told a joint press conference with the British prime minister: “It’s in fact since Brexit [that] the UK has no migratory agreement with the EU.
“It creates an incentive to make the crossing, the precise opposite of what Brexit had promised.”
The pair have agreed on a plan to send back small boats migrants, with an asylum seeker being sent to the UK in exchange.