PARIS: Britain has paid France 540 million euros ($635 million) since 2023 in fees to combat small boats carrying undocumented migrants across the Channel, a senior French official said Thursday.
France has spent about 331 million euros in the same period on the campaign, according to figures provided by Laurent Touvet, head of the interior ministry’s DGEF agency, which handles migration policy.
“It is estimated that the United Kingdom’s contribution to the fight against illegal immigration is around 62 percent of the total” with the remaining 38 percent covered by France, Touvet told a parliamentary commission.
For 2023-2026, “this represents 540 million euros funded by the United Kingdom,” mainly for “personnel costs, but also for investment on French territory,” he added.
It was “plausible” to estimate that about 85 percent of the total sum had been spent on security missions and the rest on social, health and humanitarian costs, including rescues at sea, said Touvet.
The parliamentary commission is looking into the impact of the 2004 Franco-British accord on cross-Channel migration on the rights of migrants.
Elsa Faucillon, the communist lawmaker who chairs the commission, said there was “the feeling that there’s a lot of vagueness and a lack of transparency regarding the amount of money deployed.
“These are very substantial sums, and yet we have not only 40,000 crossings, but also very well-documented and numerous human rights violations,” she added.
According to British figures, some 41,472 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025 — the second highest figure since the phenomenon took off in 2018.
At least 29 would-be migrants died in the Channel in 2025, according to an AFP count from official French and British sources.
Britain has paid France $635 million to counter Channel boats: ministry
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Britain has paid France $635 million to counter Channel boats: ministry
- For 2023-2026, “this represents 540 million euros funded by the UK,” mainly for “personnel costs, but also for investment on French territory,” Touvet said
- It was “plausible” to estimate that about 85 percent of the total sum had been spent on security missions
26 Doctors without Borders workers remain unaccounted for in South Sudan a month after attacks
- A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said
- “We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity”
NAIROBI: More than two dozen Doctors Without Borders workers remain unaccounted for a month after attacks in South Sudan, the medical charity said.
Two facilities belonging to the group, known by French acronym MSF, were attacked on Feb. 3 in Jonglei State, northeast of the capital, Juba, where violence has displaced an estimated 280,000 people since December.
A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said, while another medical facility in the town of Pieri was raided by “unknown assailants.” Both were located in opposition-held areas.
Staff working at the two facilities fled alongside much of the local population into deeply rural areas where armed clashes and aerial bombardments were ongoing.
MSF said in a statement on Monday that “26 of 291 of our colleagues working in Lankien and Pieri remain unaccounted for.
“We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity,” it said.
The lack of communication with its staff could be linked to the limited network connectivity in much of the state. Staff members who had been contacted described “destruction, violence and extreme hardships.”
Fighting escalated sharply in December, when opposition forces captured a string of government outposts in north central Jonglei. In January, the government responded with a counteroffensive that recaptured most of the area it had lost.
Displaced people in Akobo, an opposition-held town near the Ethiopian border, described horrific violence by government fighters. Many described not being able to find food or water as they walked for days to reach safety.
The attacks on MSF facilities in Lankien and Pieri are part of an uptick in violence on humanitarian staff, supplies and infrastructure, aid groups say. MSF facilities have been attacked 10 times in the last 12 months.
“This violence has taken an unbearable toll not only on health care services, but on the very people who kept them running,” said Yashovardhan, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, who only uses one name.
“Medical workers must never be targets,” he said. “We are deeply concerned about what has happened to our colleagues and the communities we serve.”
