13 Mar 2023

Europe: Migrant crossing spotlight

From Nine To Noon, 9:50 am on 13 March 2023

Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney joins Kathryn to look at the first face-to-face summit between the French and British leaders in five years, as Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron put the spotlight on migration.

London has agreed to up the amount it pays Paris to patrol Normandy beaches to prevent migrants from setting off across the English Channel in small boats, but President Macron refused to address the UK's demand that asylum seekers arriving in the UK be sent back to France.

Meanwhile $100 billion may be needed to repair the damage from the devastating earthquakes in Syria and Turkey five weeks ago, with a major donor drive now underway.

UK Border Force officers come to meet migrants, believed to have been picked up from boats in the Channel, from Coastal patrol vessel "HMC Speedwell", in the port of Dove.

The UK's migrant policy was front and centre of a meeting between the leaders of France and the UK last week. Photo: AFP