Starmer to discuss ‘global problem' of illegal migration with German Chancellor
'The networks of these criminal gangs stretch across countless countries and legal systems, showing no respect for our borders,' he added.
'We'll go further to tackle this shared issue together.'
According to the Home Office, 353 people crossed the English Channel by small boat on Friday, just a day after the Prime Minister signed a deal with French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at deterring migrants from making the perilous journey.
This was down from the 573 people who crossed on Thursday, the first time any such journeys were made in a week.
More crossings were witnessed on Saturday, but the full figures are yet to be published.
Border force vessels and the RNLI were called out on both Thursday and Friday to reports of multiple boats crossing the channel, the Coastguard said.
A statement from the Coastguard said: 'HM Coastguard has been co-ordinating a response to multiple incidents involving small boats in the Channel on 10 and 11 July.
'UK Border Force and RNLI vessels have been sent as part of this response.'
Under the terms of the deal agreed by the Prime Minister and Mr Macron, the UK will be able to send migrants back to France for the first time in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain.
The so-called one in, one out deal is due to begin in weeks on a pilot basis, but needs final legal verification from the EU.
Downing Street has indicated ministers expect the EU to support the arrangement, amid concerns among some European governments that migrants who have travelled to Britain could end up back on their territory.
No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the pilot, but French officials had indicated it could initially be limited to about 50 a week, a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782.
Sir Keir wrote: 'This is what serious, practical solutions to global problems look like.
'We will do our duty as a compassionate country, accepting genuine asylum seekers who respect our rules and our way of life. That is fair.
'But people who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started. That is a real deterrent.'
At least 21,000 people have already made the journey since January, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for crossings.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The big emitters: which countries are holding back climate action and why?
This year will be the 30th UN climate summit – known as the conference of the parties (Cop) – and it is being held in Brazil. Every climate summit is crucial but Cop30 is taking place during extremely challenging times. The US has pulled out of the Paris agreement, under which the world's countries agreed to hold global temperature rises to 'well below' 2C above preindustrial levels while 'pursuing efforts' to limit heating to 1.5C. Israel has bombed Iran, one of the global oil superpowers, while the EU, one of the champions of climate action, has been beset on multiple fronts by member states and parties that want the bloc to row back on emissions rules and environmental regulations. So we thought it was a good time to take a look at the world's biggest emitting countries, and their plans – constructive or otherwise – for addressing their carbon emissions. Some are autocracies, some democracies tumbling towards rightwing populism, some are straining to hold together a consensus on climate action. We will be profiling each of the top 10 emitters – according to Global Carbon Budget – over the coming months, in the run-up to Cop30. To kick off the series, the Guardian's environment editor, Fiona Harvey, has interviewed some of the world's leading thinkers about how to negotiate with autocracies. We have also done a deep dive on Russia, 'the canary in the coalmine', according to one source. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In future weeks, we will cover South Korea, India, the United States, Germany, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, and Indonesia – seeking a deeper understanding of how the pieces are going to fall in this crucial year for climate action.
Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
Experts warn London to Berlin trains 'might not happen'
Train experts have said that plans for a direct route between the UK and Germany should be taken with 'a pinch of salt'. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz yesterday signed an agreement which aims to create direct train services between London and Berlin. The Kensington treaty, which also included e-gates for frequent travellers, school exchange programmes and defence, aims to begin services within the next decade. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A joint task force has been set up to smooth barriers that block direct train travel, including border control, commercial and technical issues, as trains and tracks can be different between the countries. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said UK passengers could be able to visit iconic Berlin sights directly by rail 'in just a matter of years.' She said: 'This landmark agreement – part of a new treaty the Prime Minister will sign with Chancellor Merz today – has the potential to fundamentally change how millions of people travel between our two countries, offering a faster, more convenient and significantly greener alternative to flying.' Other possible routes include Frankfurt, Cologne and Geneva. However, an expert in European rail travel, Mark Smith, who runs the popular Man in Seat 61 website, said a direct link between London and Berlin is unlikely. 'If you're running several trains a day from Frankfurt or Cologne, you can probably justify that. One train a day to Berlin that would take all day, you probably can't justify that either,' Mark told Metro. 'I think it is unlikely that an operator will find a commercial way to run a train all the way to and from Berlin with full customs, border control and passport checks located in Berlin. London – Paris: 2h 16m London – Brussels: Less than two hours London – Amsterdam: 3h 50m London – Lille: 1h 20m London – Rotterdam: 3h 31m 'As distance increases, the track access costs rise, the number of journeys you get out of the rolling stop dramatically reduces – to Berlin, you are basically going to get one journey a day out of a very expensive piece of kit. 'And yet, the money you can get from London to Berlin isn't that much greater than London to Brussels because a one-directional flight, which you're competing with, is about the same cost.' A journey between the capitals would only be possible if the government poured money into subsidising the route or it was taken over by an operator with enough train stock, he said. Due to platform and rolling stock limitations, there might only be one train a day, but there would still have to be border checks and separated facilities at stations as the UK is outside the Schengen zone. But Mark did say people appear to be eager for more train routes after a new eight-hour train from Paris to Berlin launched in December, which is 'heavily booked.' 'This is because people are fed up with air travel in airports, and they want to travel more sustainably,' he said. 'But that Paris to Berlin train doesn't need border controls. 'There is demand for longer-distance travel, but it is difficult to serve commercially from the UK with all the border controls. 'I give credence to a train to Cologne and Frankfurt. Eurostar have actually said they want to run to Frankfurt and Geneva, and the run to Frankfurt goes via Cologne. 'It's not going to be easy to find secure platform space at Frankfurt and Geneva, but Cologne is going to be a real problem, and they haven't got a solution for that yet.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Cherished lollipop men and women vanish from Croydon after council wields the axe MORE: £9,500,000 upgrade begins on 'dangerous' London road with dozens of crashes MORE: Banky's right-hand man reveals moment elusive artist was 'seconds' from being exposed
Leader Live
2 hours ago
- Leader Live
EU targets Russian energy revenue with new sanctions over Ukraine war
Kaja Kallas said in a statement: 'The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war.' Ms Kallas said the measures amount to 'one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date', linked to the war, now in its fourth year. It comes as European countries start to buy US weapons for Ukraine to help the country better defend itself. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the new measures, describing them as a 'timely and necessary' step amid intensified Russian attacks. 'All infrastructure of Russia's war must be blocked,' Mr Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine will synchronise its sanctions with the EU and introduce its own additional measures soon. The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, had proposed to lower the oil price cap from 60 US dollars (£44) to 45 dollars (£33), which is lower than the market price, to target Russia's vast energy revenues. The 27 member countries decided to set the price per barrel at just under 48 dollars (£35). The EU had hoped to get major international powers in the Group of Seven countries involved in the price cap to broaden the impact, but conflict in the Middle East pushed up oil prices and the Trump administration could not be brought on board. In 2023, Ukraine's Western allies limited sales of Russian oil to 60 dollars per barrel, but the price cap was largely symbolic as most of Moscow's crude — its main money maker — cost less than that. Still, the cap was there in case oil prices rose. Oil income is the linchpin of Russia's economy, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse. A new import ban was also imposed in an attempt to close a loophole allowing Russia to export crude oil via a number of non-EU countries indirectly. The EU also targeted the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany to prevent Mr Putin from generating any revenue from them in future, notably by discouraging would-be investors. Russian energy giant Rosneft's refinery in India was hit as well. The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation. They were targeted by sabotage in 2022, but the source of the underwater explosions has remained a major international mystery. On top of that, the new EU sanctions targeted Russia's banking sector, with the aim of limiting the Kremlin's ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. Two Chinese banks were added to the list. The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Mr Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24 2022. More than 2,400 officials and 'entities' — often government agencies, banks, companies or organisations — have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans. But each round of sanctions is getting harder to agree on, as measures targeting Russia bite the economies of the 27 member nations. Slovakia held up the latest package over concerns about proposals to stop Russian gas supplies, which it relies on. The last raft of EU sanctions, imposed on May 20, targeted almost 200 ships in Russia's sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers. On Friday, 105 more ships were blocked from European ports, locks and from ship-to-ship transfers, bringing the total number of vessels now sanctioned to more than 400.
