Records detailing how French authorities have been spending funds provided by the United Kingdom to stem illegal migration flows have revealed that the money, in addition to being used to purchase equipment to better police borders, was utilized to buy everyday items including but not limited to microwave ovens and vacuum cleaners.
Budget documents, obtained by Politico Europe, show for the first time how the €46.5 million provided by the United Kingdom under the Sandhurst Treaty have been allocated by France since the border security pact was signed in 2018 by President Emmanuel Macron and then-UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
This year, British funding accounted for 10% of France’s total budget for border protection, the budget documents indicate.
According to the report, France used some of the funds to more effectively monitor and control its border with Italy, which sits nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the English Channel.
When asked why the money, instead of being utilized to police France’s coastline along the Channel, is being used to beef up security on the Franco-Italian border, a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity insisted there was “some logic” in doing so since some of the migrants who end up in the Calais region arrive to France by way of Italy.
Much of the cash has been used to purchase transport vehicles, including helicopters, cars, motorbikes, electric scooters, and four-wheel All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), as well as surveillance gear like aerial drones, binoculars, hunting cameras, endoscopes, software, and dashcams.
Additionally, €150,000 went toward the establishment of a horse brigade in the Baie de Somme, situated along the English Channel coast. The money bought riding boots and helmets, and will also be used to attend to the needs of the horses, which incurs an expense of some €30,000 a year.
Funds, however, were also put towards equipping French police with microwave ovens, printers, vacuum cleaners for cars, and car adapters for charging various electronic devices.
Since the UK and French premiers inked the agreement five years ago, French law enforcement has intercepted less than half of the migrants trying to cross the English Channel. Furthermore, despite having struck another agreement with the UK for the same purpose in March, which saw Britain pledge to provide France with over half a billion euros (€540.3 million) over the next three years, figures have shown France is intercepting fewer boat migrants seeking to make their way across the Channel.
In August, official figures revealed that French border agents, since the beginning of this year, have only managed to intercept 13,700 (45.2%) illegal migrants trying to cross the Channel, down slightly from 17,000 (45.8%) intercepted in the same period last year, prompting frustration from high-ranking UK government officials.
Tim Loughton, a former minister and member of the Home Affairs committee, called the figures “disappointing given the huge investment of resources funded by the British taxpayer, which we have been assured has led to enhanced patrols and therefore much better interception rates.”
“Clearly we are paying more money for the French police to continue failing to stop even more migrants on the beaches before they get into the water,” he continued, adding: “We need an immediate value for money assessment of exactly what the British taxpayer is getting for their money.”
Since the signing of the Sandhurst Treaty, some 3,500 small boats, transporting 111,000 illegal migrants across the Channel, have successfully made landfall on UK territory.