By the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

February 2023 marks 20 years since the French and British governments set in stone the externalisation of British border controls into the north of France, through the Touquet Treaty. 20 years later, the Touquet agreements remain a founding act of the hostile immigration policy implemented on the Channel and North Sea coast.

Since the signing of the treaty, over 300 people have died at the border. Many others have disappeared, and thousands have been harassed and injured.

Now, two in-depth reports documenting the crisis at the border caused by successive bilateral agreements have been newly translated into English from their original French. The reports illuminate the connections between hostile immigration policies on both sides of the Channel.

One of the reports estimates that since 1998, 1.28 billion euros have been spent on enforcing the UK-France border and the situation for exiled people has only worsened. These reports investigate and expose the harassment, surveillance, and violence carried out against people on the move at this border, financed by the UK Government through these bilateral agreements, in the name of preventing people from reaching the UK. 

Originally published by the Plateforme des Soutiens aux Migrant.e.s in 2022, the first report, “Investigating 30 Years of the Political Factory of Deterrence”, was written by political scientist Pierre Bonnevalle. It analyses 30 years of a costly and ineffective policy at the UK-France border, built through a series of bilateral agreements between the two countries, domestic migration policies, and increased militarisation and surveillance.

The second report, “ON THE BORDER, Life in transit at the French-British border”, was written by the anthropologist Marta Lotto and focuses on the experiences of people on the move who end up blocked at the border, trying to reach the UK. She reports on the reflections, analyses, and perceptions of the people she interviewed from March to August 2021 in from Caen to Grande-Synthe, by way of Calais, Ouistreham, Cherbourg, St. Hilaire Cottes, Ranville et Herzeele.

Pierre Bonnevalle, one of the report authors said:

“Since the late 1990s, successive French governments have repeatedly abused exiles at the UK/French border. Each new treaty between France and Britain brings new state violence, confining exiles to survive in increasingly inhumane conditions. The work of these reports documents the political manufacturing of a hostile environment created and enforced on the northern coastline and funded by the UK. Twenty years after the Touquet agreements, it is time to put an end to the policy of hostility established through these agreements.”

In their Foreword to “Investigating 30 Years of the Political Factory of Deterrence”, Watch the Channel say: “There is a lack of awareness among the British public about what’s happening on the UK’s border with France. Harmful bilateral agreements, state mandated destitution and systemic police violence have dehumanised and marginalised migrant communities in Northern France for the past 30 years. While camp locations shift and communities move between them, there is little about the overall situation that changes.”

The translation of these reports is an initiative of the Crossborder Forum, through the support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. The Crossborder Forum is a space for civil society organisations to exchange information and expertise and work collaboratively towards shared advocacy and action on ongoing cross-border migration and asylum issues. It has over 40 members, ranging from direct support organisations for people on the move in northern France to national migrants’ rights organisations in the UK, France, and Belgium.

The reports are available on the JCWI website

Image: c/o Mike Phipps