Babak Belurs

Senin, 14 November 2022

UK strikes revised deal with France on Channel migrants - BBC

French Police officer looking out over a beach near Wimereux in France

By Paul Seddon

Politics reporter

The UK will pay France £8m more a year under a revised deal to try to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The money will pay for increased surveillance of French beaches, whilst UK police officers will also be able to observe patrols within France.

French officers patrolling the coast to try to stop people setting off will rise from 200 to 300 over five months.

PM Rishi Sunak said he was "confident" the crossings could be brought down.

However, he warned there was no "single thing" that could "fix" the situation, promising "even greater cooperation" with France in the months ahead.

BBC News home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said that while the expanded deal would further disrupt the people smugglers operating in France, it was unlikely to end their trade.

The government is coming under increasing pressure to reduce journeys across the Channel, which have risen to record levels this year.

More than 40,000 people have crossed in small boats so far this year, including 1,800 this weekend alone, according to official figures.

Under the new agreement, signed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman in Paris, the UK will pay France £63m this year, up from £55m last year.

It will cover:

investment in drones, night vision equipment, and CCTV in French ports to try and prevent crossings
funding for detection dogs at ports to identify people trying to enter the UK in lorries
investment in reception and removal centres in France

UK observers will be embedded in French control rooms, and French observers embedded in UK control rooms, to help inform each other's deployments.

The deal had been close for several months but the French government were reluctant to finalise it until there was a stable government in the UK, our correspondent added.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK wanted to "significantly" reduce the number of crossings - but declined to set a target for reductions.

Analysis box by Dominic Casciani, home and legal correspondent

Today's announcement may shift some officers closer to frontline decision-making - but it's not clear how the deal helps the UK to solve three pressing issues.

Firstly, those new British teams (on top of those deployed since 2018) will only be observers.

They have no operational powers, so even if more boats and smugglers are intercepted, they can't tell the French what to do with individual migrants who we know may try more than once to cross.

Secondly, some critics say the UK needs to look for a bigger continental-wide deal. But it chose not to be part of the EU's irregular migrant management policies, as part of Brexit.

The final big challenge is on the UK side of the English Channel. The Home Office's day-to-day battle to find somewhere to accommodate those who survive the sea is directly linked to the department's huge backlogs and the delays in dealing with those who arrived before them.

Franck Dhersin, mayor of Teteghem near the coastal town of Dunkirk, said the increase in crossings this year had come despite "a lot of police" watching the coast.

"We are talking about 175km of beaches and dunes, where it is very easy to hide," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, called the new deal "more of the same," adding it "falls far short of what is needed".

"The only thing that will tackle this issue is making sure that the boats are stopped in France before they get in the water," she added.

The higher numbers of migrants making the crossing this year has been partly blamed on a big rise in the number of Albanian nationals making the journey.

So far this year 12,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK using small boats, compared to just 50 in 2020.

The deal comes after weeks of criticism aimed at the government for severe overcrowding at the migrant processing site in Manston, Kent, and for its spending on housing for those waiting for their asylum applications to be completed.

Last month, the Home Affairs Committee heard that the UK is spending almost £7m a day on hotels for asylum seekers, with only 4% of asylum claims by migrants who crossed the Channel last year having been processed.

Graphic showing the number of Channel crossings

The latest government figures for the year to the end of June 2022 showed that 103,000 asylum applications were awaiting a decision.

Ms Braverman has previously admitted the system was "broken" and Mr Sunak has said not enough asylum claims were being processed.

More than 40,000 people applying for asylum have waited between one and three years for a decision on their claim, according to a Refugee Council Freedom of Information request, reported in The Guardian.

It also reported that a further 725 migrants have been waiting for more than five years to have their claim processed.

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It emerged last month there was severe overcrowding at Manston, with 4,000 people staying there rather than the 1,600 for which the site was intended.

Numbers have since been reduced to less than 1,600, according to immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

On Saturday it emerged people at Manston centre are to be vaccinated against highly contagious and sometimes fatal diphtheria after an outbreak.

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2022-11-14 11:18:34Z
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Suella Braverman to sign revised deal with France on Channel migrants - BBC

By Kate Whannel & Alexandra Binley

BBC News

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has travelled to Paris to sign an expanded deal to try to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The amount the UK pays France to cover the cost of increased patrols at their end will go up from about £55m a year to £63m, under the revised agreement.

The number of officers patrolling the French coast to try to stop people setting off will rise from 200 to 300.

But PM Rishi Sunak said the government "can't fix" the issue "overnight".

Speaking while travelling to the G20 summit in Bali, the prime minister said "there's no a single thing to do" to tackle the issue, with the deal being part of a larger package of measures.

On the visit to France, Ms Braverman told UK broadcasters that "there will be a 40% uplift in the number of French gendarmes controlling the French beaches".

In recent weeks, Ms Braverman has come under growing pressure over the crossings.

So far this year, more than 40,000 people have made the perilous crossing, the highest number on record.

Chris Mason: Rishi Sunak grilled on small boat crossings

BBC News home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said that while the expanded deal would further disrupt the people smugglers operating in France it was unlikely to end their trade.

The British government has always stressed that there is no single solution to the problem of thousands of migrants risking their lives crossing the Channel in small boats.

But one approach tried in recent years has been to try to stop migrants leaving French shores. There are thousands of people in coastal towns there, who have travelled from other countries and are waiting for their opportunity to cross the Channel to claim asylum in the UK.

As well as extra officers and patrols, the British money will allow more use of drones and night vision equipment, and will also be spent on boosting reception and removal centres in France.

French ports will receive investment to increase the use of CCTV and detection dog teams to prevent illegal entry to the UK via lorries. UK observers will be embedded in French control rooms, and French observers embedded in UK control rooms - to help inform each other's deployments.

The deal had been close for several months but the French government were reluctant to finalise it until there was a stable government in the UK, our correspondent says.

Lucy Moreton, the spokesperson for the ISU, the union for border and immigration officials, told the BBC's Today programme the government's deal was "a very early stepping stone" in the right direction.

The revised deal comes after weeks of criticism aimed at the government for severe overcrowding at the migrant processing site in Manston, Kent, and for its spending on housing for those waiting for their asylum applications to be completed.

Last month, the Home Affairs Committee heard that the UK is spending almost £7m a day on hotels for asylum seekers.

MPs also heard that only 4% of asylum claims by migrants who crossed the English Channel in 2021 had been processed.

The latest government figures for the year to the end of June 2022 showed that 103,000 asylum applications were awaiting a decision.

Ms Braverman has previously admitted the system was "broken" and Mr Sunak has said not enough asylum claims were being processed.

The home secretary will hope a new agreement with the French can ease pressure on the process.

It also reported that a further 725 migrants have been waiting for more than five years to have their claim processed.

Once people who cross the English Channel in small boats reach UK shores, those who are detained are sent to Manston Airport in Kent where they undergo security and identity checks.

They are only meant to be held there for a short period before moving into the Home Office's asylum accommodation system while their claims are processed.

A French Gendarmerie Maritime boat patrols French waters to monitor among others things the movement of illegally migrants crossing the English Channel

However, last month it emerged there was severe overcrowding at Manston, with 4,000 people staying there rather than the 1,600 for which the site was intended.

Numbers have since been reduced to less than 1,600, according to immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

On Saturday it emerged people at Manston centre are to be vaccinated against highly contagious and sometimes fatal diphtheria after an outbreak.

The higher numbers of migrants making the crossing this year has been partly blamed on a big rise in the number of Albanian nationals making the journey.

So far this year 12,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK using small boats, compared to just 50 in 2020.

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2022-11-14 08:00:47Z
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Brentford fire live: Updates as man dies after blaze rips through West London home - My London

A man has died after a huge fire destroyed a house in West London on Sunday afternoon (November 14), and two women have been rushed to hospital. The fire started at just after 4pm on Netley Road, just off Ealing Road, Brentford, and it took the London Fire Brigade over two hours to put out the blaze.

Roads were closed in the surrounding area as eight fire engines and 65 firefighters tackled the fire at the home. The conditions of the two women in hospital are not yet known.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "A man has sadly died following a house fire on Netley Road in Brentford. The two storey house fire was badly damaged by the blaze. Firefighters found the man on the ground floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"A woman was rescued by firefighters and was taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service crews. Another woman left the property before the Brigade arrived and was also taken to hospital.

"The Brigade was called at 1603 and the fire was under control by 1714. Fire crews from Chiswick and surrounding fire stations were at the scene. The cause of the fire is under investigation."

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "Officers were called at about 4.05pm on Sunday, November 13 to reports of a fire inside a flat on Netley Road in Brentford. Emergency services are in attendance.

"Three people were treated by the London Ambulance Service. Despite the efforts of paramedics, one person was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two people have been taken to hospital; we await an update on their condition. A number of neighbouring properties have been evacuated."

MyLondon have contacted Met Police and London Fire Brigade for updates on the condition of the two women who were rushed to hospital.

The Metropolitan Police initially told MyLondon that a woman had died in the fire, however, they have now been confirmed to be a man.

Did you see the fire? Were you at the scene? Email matt.spivey@Reachplc.com.

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2022-11-14 06:22:30Z
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Minggu, 13 November 2022

Police officer charged with attempted murder of woman - Sky News

A police officer has been charged with attempted murder after a woman was taken to hospital.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said officers were called to a report of concern for the welfare of a woman at a hotel on Brook Street, Manchester.

Emergency services attended and the woman was taken to hospital, where she remains in a stable condition.

James Riley, a serving Lancashire Constabulary officer, has been charged with attempted murder, GMP said.

The 27-year-old has been remanded in custody and will appear at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact GMP.

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2022-11-13 12:15:50Z
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Jeremy Hunt says everyone will have to pay higher taxes - but richest will make larger sacrifices - Sky News

Jeremy Hunt has said everyone is going to be paying higher taxes but those who earn the most will have to make larger sacrifices.

The chancellor told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme during Thursday's autumn statement he "will be asking everyone for sacrifices" but recognises there is "only so much we can ask" from people on the lowest incomes.

"That will be reflected in the decisions that I take, that's important because Britain is a decent country, a fair country, a compassionate country," Mr Hunt said.

"We're all going to be paying a bit more tax, I'm afraid."

Tax rises and spending cuts coming but Hunt says budget 'won't just be bad news' - live politics updates

Ministers are understood to be considering lowering the threshold at which employees pay the highest 45p rate of income tax from £150,000 to £125,000, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

Nurses across the UK this week voted to go on strike for the first time, likely next month, as they demand a 17% pay rise.

Mr Hunt, who was health secretary when junior doctors went on strike for the first time in 2015, said he was "very conscious" of nurses' concerns and understands they are asking for that above-inflation increase because of the impact of inflation on their pay packet.

But he said: "I think we have to recognise a difficult truth that if we gave everyone inflation-proof pay rises, inflation would stay. We wouldn't bring down inflation.

"And that's why, you know, I'm not pretending there aren't some difficult decisions.

"The way through this is to bring down inflation as quickly as possible, because that is the root cause of your concern, your anger, your frustration, that your pay isn't going as far as it might."

Mr Hunt promised the autumn statement will "not just be bad news" but said he believes the public recognises "if you want to give people confidence about the future you have to be honest about the present".

He said his plan will be both short and long-term and will bring down inflation, control high energy prices and "get our way back to growing, healthily".

The chancellor said his plan will help get the UK out of a recession as quickly and with as little pain as possible as he also promised help for energy bills not just this winter, but next.

But he also said spending cuts from government departments will be needed and hinted no more funding will be given to the NHS.

He said the health service's funding is already going up but the government needs to do "everything we can to find efficiencies" within the NHS.

Mr Hunt, asked if the NHS is on the brink of collapse, admitted doctors and nurses "on the frontline are frankly under unbearable pressure so I do recognise the picture".

Jeremy Hunt's gloomy outlook will worry people - including Tory MPs

Sam Coates

Deputy political editor

@SamCoatesSky

The government is zig zagging at speed with its economic policy and borrowing to invest one week while cutting our cloth to our means the next.

It's no surprise that people's heads are spinning.

That was a very depressing, gloomy interview with Jeremy Hunt in which he emphasised the world has changed so he has to bring in a lot of pain.

I think that will worry people, including Tory MPs.

Liz Truss wanted to borrow too much in order to promote growth and I wonder whether or not the conversation after Thursday is whether or not Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt haven't done the same thing but in the other direction.

Whether the eye-watering pain they're going to initiate on Thursday doesn't go too far. Whether it's commensurate with the size of the problem that we've got.

He added that public services need a strong economy but that applies the other way around as well.

And he said the NHS can help get the UK out of the current economic difficulties, such as helping the growing number of people out of work due to long-term sickness.

Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary under Liz Truss, told Sophy Ridge on Sunday he would rather see public spending cuts than tax rises in the fiscal statement.

He said: "I would strongly urge that the great balance of this statement should come from spending reductions because I really do think that there is an issue with our raising the burden of taxation on Britain at this time."

Mr Clarke added that government spending has risen "substantially" over the past decade so there is "potential" to make savings that "did not damage public services".

Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the chancellor could still make "fair choices" in the autumn statement that do not place the burden on the public by closing tax loopholes and backdating the windfall tax on energy companies' profits to January and extending it by two years.

She said the windfall tax extension could raise an additional £50bn.

Ms Reeves also called for a general election as she said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has "no mandate for the cuts and tax increases" because he was not voted in by the country, but by Conservative MPs.

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Sophy Ridge on Sunday: Jeremy Hunt says everyone will have to pay higher taxes - but richest will make larger sacrifices - Sky News

Jeremy Hunt has said everyone is going to be paying higher taxes but those who earn the most will have to make larger sacrifices.

"That will be reflected in the decisions that I take, that's important because Britain is a decent country, a fair country, a compassionate country," Mr Hunt said.

"We're all going to be paying a bit more tax, I'm afraid."

Chancellor warns of tax rises and spending cuts but says budget 'wont just be bad news' - live politics updates