Border control at sea between the UK and France has risen in political prominence in the past eight months (see ‘Migrant pushbacks: crimes at sea?’). While there has been a rise in the number of small boats arriving in the UK, much of the UK press have presented as unprecedented the numbers of arrivals, amounting to under 30,000 in 2021 (compared to 418,495 in the EU). That the UK remains party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention garners less attention: under the convention, it is committed to determining and providing international protection to those applying in the UK, including those arriving irregularly by sea.
Since the early 2000s, the UK and France have had agreements regarding policing arrangements in France to prevent apparently unwanted persons from travelling from France to the UK. Under these, the UK has been entitled to send Border Force officers to France for border control operations, and operate detention centres for persons caught seeking to
