The Home Office has announced plans for a new detention centre in Dunkirk, France, with a capacity of 140 individuals, aimed at detaining migrants intercepted while attempting to reach the UK. The facility, expected to be operational by the end of the year, will focus on returning failed asylum seekers to their home countries, including Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iran, among others.
Details of the Agreement
The centre is part of a landmark deal between the UK and France, funded from a £160 million pot paid to French authorities based on results in stopping small boat crossings. The removal site will target the top 10 nationalities making up the majority of crossings: Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, and Yemen. Individuals will either be sent back to their home countries or to other European nations they passed through.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated: "This Government is bearing down on illegal small boat crossings. Under this new agreement, we will remove those with no right to be here before they attempt to cross the Channel – starting this year."
Criticism from Human Rights Groups
Human rights organisations have condemned the move. Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said: "Caring people across the country will be outraged to discover their money is funding the detention of survivors of torture and war in France. People whose only ‘crime’ was hoping the UK would offer them sanctuary." She added that detention can cause profound damage, increasing risks of suicide and self-harm, and that swift returns are misleading given the risk of persecution.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, commented: "Yet again, millions are being poured into diverting journeys rather than addressing why people are forced to make them. People cross the Channel to escape conflict, persecution and extreme hardship."
Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at Refugee Council, noted: "It’s hard to see how this approach will meaningfully reduce channel crossings. People from these countries have genuine reasons to fear for their lives."
Broader UK-France Migration Deal
The detention centre is part of a wider £662 million deal signed by Ms Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. The agreement includes a 40% increase in French personnel on the ground, a new riot police unit to disperse groups on beaches, and an expansion of a French intelligence unit from 18 to 30 officers. Additionally, £500 million will be invested in enforcement, with a further £160 million contingent on success. New drones and helicopters will be used to monitor smugglers, and a new vessel will be assigned to intercept taxi boats picking up migrants from the coast.
Until the Dunkirk centre is operational, the approach will be trialled at a nearby removal centre in Coquelles from next month.
