Yvette Cooper goes to France

Working together is the only way to solve this issue. Standing on one side of the channel and yelling across to the other was never going to work...

I was astounded that its been 5 years since such a meeting and its clear that past hostility has now been replaced by an eagerness to work together because French residents have totally had enough now that smugglers are armed.

The article makes it clear but there are also measures taking place in other parts of the "Chain"

"Germany meanwhile has agreed to make it a crime to facilitate illegal immigration to the UK.

That is a really big deal because it would mean police could raid the warehouses storing the dinghies.

Bulgaria customs officials have shown that existing laws can be used to seize consignment of dinghies as they enter the EU from Turkey - and the icing on the cake for the British would be China seize the cheap engines which have no place in the legitimate maritime market.

The two sides are talking, but there's nothing confirmed there yet.

While those conversations continue, the UK's legal plans to criminalise actions that prepare the way for a crossing - such as funding, advertising and other logistical arrangements - will go through Parliament.

Another key feature in the package means jail for anyone endangers lives at sea by attacking the police units on the French beaches or obstructs a rescue.

If La Crise Migratoire is going to end, all of these individual initiatives, legal reforms and technological solutions need to work together"

Priti Patel went in July 2020:

... I have been in France today seeing first-hand the significant work undertaken on that side of the Channel to address the unacceptably high levels of small boats, alongside the efforts of Border Force and the National Crime Agency in the UK.

www.gov.uk/government/news/priti-patel-and-new-french-interior-minister-agree-action-on-channel-crossings

Then we had Braverman and Cleverly plus Shapps for all of six days.

This looks promising, doesn't it?

... there is genuine optimism that this could be the year when things begin to change.

Unfortunately, the mayor of Calais, who has been in the post for 17 years and seen it all, is not so optimistic. Apparently, after the visit last Thursday, and a meeting with Yvette Cooper and Retailleau, the thoughts were:
"We were waiting for agreement today, clearly nothing has come. I don't think we were listened to nor taken seriously." (Taken from French news outlets).

Talking is good, but without confimation of anything happening soon, it seems that the UK millions are being spent by the French on fancy drones, thermal imagining equipment and troops who have no real powers. Fingers crossed there will eventually be a breakthrough.

It was the first discussions so nothing to sign until they are drawn up.

The most powerful one would be undoubtedly

"France's relatively new interior minister told me this week he now wants to change complex maritime rules to allow his land-based units to intercept these taxi-boats as they sit in shallow waters. This is what the British have asked the French to do for years"

Surely the obvious way to stop them is to make this country less attractive to them? However, that isn't what this government wants. They don't want to stop the migrants, they want them to find a safer way to get here.
I should like to know exactly what their plan is. The previous government and this one are working together to flood the country with immigrants, regardless of the effect on our public services. I presume there is a purpose behind it.
The only result I can foresee is a civil war.

I don't think our government want uncontrolled migration.

What makes you think that? Can you quote any source?

Here's a report from January on it.
www.gov.uk/government/news/government-removes-highest-number-of-illegal-migrants-in-5-years

Yvette Coopers plans as outlined in the O/P could make a big difference.

Good for her . Surely co- operation is essential.
mum2three, I presume that you are able to offer data and evidence for your assertion that the government "is working to flood the country with immigrants".

Another interesting development is just coming to light: its hard to find a detailed source to reference but google

"Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, is leading a review on how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is applied within the UK's immigration system, potentially leading to changes in how the law is applied, not a complete overhaul of the Human rights Act or the ECHR itself"

(Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), incorporated into UK law through the Human Rights Act 1998, protects the right to respect for private and family life, home, and correspondence)

I think its a good idea in order to make sure genuine asylum seekers get what they need but the law isnt stretched past its original intentions.

Willow3
With reference to the Bulgaria/Turkish border the only way this could work would be for the EU to bribe the border guards with more money than the smugglers do.