Overview
- A three-year agreement signed Thursday renews the Sandhurst framework and commits up to £662 million, with deployments scaling up from summer 2026.
- France will add a 50-officer riot unit, raise beach enforcement by about 40% to nearly 1,100 officers, and use drones, two helicopters, upgraded cameras, a new vessel and more maritime staff to target so-called taxi boats.
- The deal ties about £160 million to a joint annual assessment of outcomes, with funds redirected to new actions if results fall short.
- Officials say joint UK‑French work has halted more than 42,000 attempted crossings since July 2024 and led to about 480 smuggler arrests in 2025, after 41,472 arrivals last year and at least 29 deaths.
- Charities and researchers warn that enforcement-only tactics can push people onto riskier routes and correlate with more deaths, noting smugglers’ shifts such as taxi boats and launches from Belgium and calling for safer legal routes.