The UK prime minister Theresa May warmly welcomes Emmanuel Macron takes place at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Berkshire. It is the French president’s first official trip across the Channel. Both leaders who met on Thursday intend to sign a new treaty on Calais migrants.
The migrant hot-spot of Calais is not the principal issue of meeting for a high-profile summit where Theresa May and Emmanuel macron are going to discuss Brexit problems. Earlier, the British government promised to pay £44.5 million for the boosting border security in that migrant camp.
The wide-ranging British-French talks will include as well the Brexit, the issue of Calais camp is not scheduled for formal discussion at the summit but it will likely come up in talks on other topics. The funding will go towards fencing, CCTV and detection technology in the northern French port city as well as at other points along the Channel from which migrants regularly attempt to reach British shores by ferry or train.
Both countries intend to have a more humane approach to the migrants, whose staying in Calais would be reduced from six months to one month for adults and 25 days for children.
The summit between French President and British prime minister also featured the first meeting of the heads of Britain and France’s five intelligence agencies and is being attended by the UK cabinet ministers and their French counterparts.
At the summit the pair will also discuss their joint crackdown on online extremism “to ensure that the internet cannot be used as a safe space for terrorists and criminals,” the spokesman said.
Britain is also expected to allocate £50 million in additional aid for those affected by epidemics, natural disasters and conflict across Mali, Niger, Chad, North Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. The government hopes the cash will cover the food and protection for 320,000 migrants.
