U.K. Must Pay France to Enforce its Borders

British taxpayers are to fork out £15 million in a deal to get the French to enforce their own borders and immigration laws.

Gordon Brown met Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday in a meeting held prior to the G8 summit.

From the BBC:

The UK has promised France £15m for border protection in return for help deporting immigrants, it was announced.

Under a deal agreed at the summit, the UK will provide £15m to pay for new technology to search vehicles and goods approaching its borders.

There are estimated to be about 1,000 migrants in makeshift camps in Calais, most hoping to enter Britain illegally.

A pilot scheme will be conducted out at Calais before being rolled out to cover Boulogne, Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel terminal at Coquelles.

In the House of Commons, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: "The investment will be made on the understanding that the French will, in return, effect significant returns of illegal migrants from northern French regions."

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said the French had promised to step up removal flights and pledged that "these changes will further strengthen the ring of steel that protects Britain".

But shadow immigration minister Damian Green said the government had struck a bad deal for taxpayers.

He added: "We are apparently paying £15m so that the French agree to enforce their own laws. Surely they should be deporting illegal immigrants anyway?"

Meanwhile, in a parliamentary written answer, Mr Woolas said the UK government spent £26.8m on flights to remove immigrants in 2008/9 - including £18.6m for scheduled flights and £8.2m on charter services.

This is mere window dressing. We know that despite his tough reputation, Nicolas Sarkozy does not care about reducing immigration to France.

Therefore, the British taxpayer will simply be paying to remove immigrants who should not be in France in the first place - provided, of course, any actually do get removed.

Meanwhile, Italy continues to show us the way in these matters. Italian citizens will be compelled by law to report all illegal immigrants to the authorities.

The Italian government, after a deal with Libya, continues its policy of simply towing boats full of illegal immigrants back to North Africa instead of allowing them to land and claim asylum, clogging up the system with lengthy appeals and being held or supported at taxpayers' expense.

The areas most heavily affected by immigrant violence and unrest will also be permitted unarmed civilian vigilante patrols, which may include uniformed nationalists of the type seen in this report:

The sad thing is that it had to get to the stage where such people are needed for ordinary citizens to feel safe in their own cities in their own country.