PARIS: Humanitarian and activist groups filed an appeal Tuesday in France to block a British-French migration deal that aims to deter record numbers of immigrants crossing the Channel to the United Kingdom.
The agreement features a “one-in, one-out” exchange, in which Britain can detain and return to France migrants arriving by boat whom they deem ineligible for asylum, in exchange for London accepting an equal number of migrants from France after they have received a visa.
It was signed in July and came into force in August, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government struggling to quell public discontent over immigration levels.
But a group of 17 NGOs appealed against the deal in France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, arguing it should have been ratified by parliament.
“The implementation decree... is tainted with illegality, as it fails to comply with the procedure prescribed by the constitution,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The groups include Utopia 56, which works with migrants, and medical charity Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World).
According to their lawyer, Lionel Crusoe, the French constitution requires the agreement to have been ratified by parliament before being signed into law.
Crusoe said he expected to hear from the court by the end of the week on whether they would schedule a hearing.
Under the deal, Britain has so far removed 26 people to France and taken in 18 migrants in return, the British government said last week.
British authorities had hoped the deal would curb record levels of irregular Channel crossings, which have fueled the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party.
The organizations argued that “the number of dangerous and illegal crossings of the Channel has not decreased” following the agreement.
More than 8,400 migrants have entered the UK on dinghies since the deal was implemented, according to an AFP count based on official British data.
Nearly 35,500 such migrants have landed on British shores since the beginning of the year.
At least 27 people have died trying to make the perilous Channel crossing by sea during that same period, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
NGOs appeal UK-France migrant exchange deal
https://arab.news/jyjdp
NGOs appeal UK-France migrant exchange deal
- “The implementation decree... is tainted with illegality, as it fails to comply with the procedure prescribed by the constitution,” the groups said
- The groups include Utopia 56, which works with migrants, and medical charity Doctors of the World
How decades of deforestation led to catastrophic Sumatra floods
- At least 1.4m hectares of forest in flood-affected provinces were lost to deforestation since 2016
- Indonesian officials vow to review permits, investigate companies suspected of worsening the disasters
JAKARTA: About a week after floods and landslides devastated three provinces in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, Rubama witnessed firsthand how the deluge left not only debris and rubble but also log after log of timber.
They were the first thing that she saw when she arrived in the Beutong Ateuh Banggalang district of Aceh, where at least two villages were wiped out by floodwaters.
“We saw these neatly cut logs moving down the river. Some were uprooted from the ground, but there are logs cut into specific sizes. This shows that the disaster in Aceh, in Sumatra, it’s all linked to illegal forestry practices,” Rubama, empowerment manager at Aceh-based environmental organization HAKA, told Arab News.
Monsoon rains exacerbated by a rare tropical storm caused flash floods and triggered landslides across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late November, killing 969 people and injuring more than 5,000 as of Wednesday, as search efforts continue for 252 others who remain missing.
In the worst-hit areas, residents were cut off from power and communication for days, as floodwater destroyed bridges and torrents of mud from landslides blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts and aid delivery to isolated villages.
When access to the affected regions gradually improved and the scale of the disaster became clearer, clips of washed-up trunks and piles of timber crashing into residential areas circulated widely online, showing how the catastrophic nature of the storm was compounded by deforestation.
“This is real, we’re seeing the evidence today of what happens when a disaster strikes, how deforestation plays a major role in the aftermath,” Rubama said.
For decades, vast sections of Sumatra’s natural forest have been razed and converted for mining, palm oil plantations and pulpwood farms.
Around 1.4 million hectares of forest in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra were lost to deforestation between 2016 and 2025 alone, according to Indonesian environmental group WALHI, citing operations by 631 permit-holding companies.
Deforestation in Sumatra stripped away natural defenses that once absorbed rainfall and stabilized soil, making the island more vulnerable to extreme weather, said Riandra Purba, executive director of WALHI’s chapter in North Sumatra.
Purba said the Sumatra floods should serve as a “serious warning” for the government to issue permits more carefully.
“Balancing natural resource management requires a sustainable approach. We must not sacrifice natural benefits for the financial benefit of a select few,” he told Arab News.
“(The government) must evaluate all the environmental policies in the region … (and) implement strict monitoring, including law enforcement that will create a deterrent effect to those who violate existing laws.”
In Batang Toru, one of the worst-hit areas in North Sumatra where seven companies operate, hundreds of hectares had been cleared for gold mining and energy projects, leaving slopes exposed and riverbeds choked with sediment.
When torrential rains hit last month, rivers in the area were swollen with runoff and timber, while villages were buried or swept away.
As public outrage grew in the wake of the Sumatra floods, Indonesian officials, including Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, have moved to review existing permits and investigate companies suspected of worsening the disaster.
“Our focus is to ensure whether company activities are influencing land stability and (increasing) risks of landslides or floods,” Nurofiq told Indonesian magazine Tempo on Saturday.
Sumatra’s natural forest cover stood at about 11.6 million hectares as of 2023, or about 24 percent of the island’s total area, falling short of the 30 to 33 percent forest coverage needed to maintain ecological balance.
The deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra also highlighted the urgency of disaster mitigation in Indonesia, especially amid the global climate crisis, said Kiki Taufik, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia.
Over two weeks since floods and landslides inundated communities in Sumatra, a few villages remain isolated and over 800,000 people are still displaced.
“This tropical cyclone, Senyar, in theory, experts said that it has a very low probability of forming near the equator, but what we have seen is that it happened, and this is caused by rapid global warming … which is triggering hydrometeorological disasters,” Taufik told Arab News.
“The government needs to give more attention, and even more budget allocation, to mitigate disaster risks … Prevention is much more important than (disaster) management, so this must be a priority for the government.”
