French parliamentary report condemns decades-old Channel border strategy

A hard-hitting 160-page report released by the Assemblée Nationale on 8 July paints a bleak picture of France’s cooperation with the United Kingdom to police the Channel crossing. Rapporteur Elsa Faucillon (Communist Party) reviewed 34 bilateral accords signed since the 1986 Sangatte agreement and concludes that the policy of subcontracting border control to France in exchange for British funding has failed on every front. The committee found that, despite £480 million in British payments since 2015, more than 40,000 people still reached England by small boat in 2025 while humanitarian conditions in makeshift camps around Calais and Dunkirk remained “completely unacceptable”. New interception-at-sea tactics—authorised in 2025 at London’s insistence—were deemed legally risky and potentially life-threatening; only eight of the 31 attempted boardings up to end-May were completed. Faucillon singles out the 2025 “one-in/one-out” deal, under which London can send irregular migrants back to France if it accepts an equivalent number of asylum-seekers, as “profoundly unbalanced”. By 11 June 2026 the UK had expelled 951 people, while taking in just 935—insignificant compared with annual crossings. Returnees surveyed by SamuSocial displayed acute post-traumatic stress disorders, prompting a referral to prosecutors. Among 33 recommendations, the committee calls for parliamentary ratification of any future Franco-British migration treaty, an immediate ban on tear gas and weapons during beach operations, abandonment of maritime interceptions, the creation of reception hubs along the northern coast and a legal family-reunification route to the UK. Although the report is not legally binding, it lands two months before annual budget talks—and days after London hinted it wants yet more French patrols. Companies moving staff or goods via the Channel tunnel should expect renewed political debate, possible funding renegotiations and, in the short term, continued disruption at Calais and Dunkirk checkpoints.