Fury as migrants to be locked up in Dunkirk detention centre under UK-France deal

Migrants intercepted on their way to the UK will be locked up in Dunkirk before being sent to their homelands, the Home Office has announced. A new 140-capacity detention centre is set to be operational by the end of the year. The French removal site will focus on sending back people top the 10 countries that make up the majority of small boat crossings. Human rights groups have voiced their outrage at the move, which forms part of a landmark deal between the UK and France. The facility will be funded from a £160million pot paid to French authorities based on results stopping small boat crossings. It will focus on removing people from Eritrea, Afghanistan , Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq , Syria , Vietnam and Yemen. They will either be sent to their home country or other European nations they passed through. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This Government is bearing down on illegal small boat crossings. “Under this new agreement, we will remove those with no right to be here before they attempt to cross the Channel – starting this year." Ministers face calls to extend safe and legal routes - a step Ms Mahmood has committed to in the future. Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said: “Caring people across the country will be outraged to discover their money is funding the detention of survivors of torture and war in France. People like the survivors we support who have fled unimaginable atrocities from conflicts in Sudan, Iran and Eritrea. People whose only ‘crime’ was hoping the UK would offer them sanctuary." Until the site is up and running, the approach will be trialled at a nearby removal centre in Coquelles from next month. Ms Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez signed a new UK-France migration deal on Thursday, with the French government promising a 40% increase in boots on the ground to stop small boats. The £662 deal will be results-based and was reached after weeks of deadlock after a 2023 agreement reached by the Tories expired. Ms Reynolds said: “Survivors of torture and trauma should never be detained. Even the briefest period in detention can cause profound damage, increasing the risk of suicide and self-harm. "The idea that they will be swiftly returned to their home country is grossly misleading, bearing in mind the risk of persecution that so many of these people face on return. More likely, they will be left in limbo in a detention centre in northern France as their health and hope deteriorates." Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, said: “Yet again, millions are being poured into diverting journeys rather than addressing why people are forced to make them. People cross the Channel to escape conflict, persecution and extreme hardship. They turn to smugglers and dangerous routes because safe alternatives are denied to them." And Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at Refugee Council, said: “It’s hard to see how this approach will meaningfully reduce channel crossings. The top nationalities being targeted under this deal include people escaping some of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world right now: a brutal civil war in Sudan, persecution under the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the ongoing war and instability in Iran. "People from these countries have genuine reasons to fear for their lives, and we know from our frontline services why some of them feel they can only start over in the UK - many already speak some English, have family here, or have cultural connections to Britain. "When people have no safe and legal route to apply for asylum in the UK, they will continue to risk their lives." On Wednesday it was announced that millions of pounds worth of drones and helicopters will be used to survey and prevent smugglers from packing dangerous vessels with migrants. At the moment 750 police, intelligence and military officers are assigned to the French coastline. This will rise to 1,100 under the agreement. The deal will see £500million invested to boost enforcement action. A further £160million will be spent if measures are successful. A new riot police unit trained to deal with hostile crowds will be set up to disperse groups on beaches. And a French intelligence unit will nearly double in size from 18 to 30 officers. There will also be a new focus on targeting taxi boats - which pick up people in waist-deep water after launching from further up the coast. French authorities will assign an additional 20 maritime officers and a new vessel to intercepting these boats.