As previously advised in the response to Question 218262, the UK-France Migration Committee meets on a bi-monthly basis and is hosted alternately by the UK Home Office and French Interior Ministry. It is not Home Office policy to release detailed information on meetings that ministers and/or officials attend

As regards payments to the French Government, no additional payments have been made beyond those detailed in the response to Question 217548, dated 12th February 2019.

The UK-France Migration Committee is comprised of policy experts and senior officials from both contracting states and is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Sandhurst Treaty and ensuring a high level of cooperation on border security and migration issues. The membership is not fixed, attendees vary over time and correlate to the issues being discussed. The Committee is normally chaired by the Director General responsible for immigration policy of the hosting state.

The package of €50 million was committed by the UK to implement the terms of the Sandhurst Treaty. This funding package has been allocated to a variety of projects, including improvements to security infrastructure at the northern French ports, cooperation in facilitating returns, improving access to French domestic asylum procedures and ensuring that vulnerable migrants are provided with the support and care that they require. It is expected that the full €50 million will have been allocated to projects before the end of this financial year. More precise details of individual projects cannot be provided for reasons of security.

A copy of the Joint Action Plan agreed with the French Government is publicly available on gov.uk, at the following address:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-france-joint-action-plan-on-illegal-migration-across-the-channel

The UK-France Migration Committee meets on a bi-monthly basis and is hosted alternately by the UK and French Governments. Going forward, the Committee will continue to meet on this basis. Exact dates are finalised closer to the meetings, to ensure that the relevant senior officials and experts are able to attend.

In order to implement the terms of the Sandhurst Treaty, the UK made a commitment of €50 million. This funding package has been allocated to a variety of projects, including improvements to security infrastructure at the northern French ports, cooperation in facilitating returns, improving access to French domestic asylum procedures and ensuring that vulnerable migrants are provided with the support and care that they require. Precise details of these projects cannot be provided for reasons of security.

To date, €42.5 million of this package has been committed, and we are on track to allocate the remainder before the end of the 18/19 financial year. Both countries will continue to cooperate closely to prevent illegal migration and to maintain the security of our shared border as well as the operation of the juxtaposed controls.

The UK-France Migration Committee meets on a bi-monthly basis and is hosted alternately by the UK and French Governments. Going forward, the Committee will continue to meet on this basis. Exact dates are finalised closer to the meetings, to ensure that the relevant senior officials and experts are able to attend.

In order to implement the terms of the Sandhurst Treaty, the UK made a commitment of €50 million. This funding package has been allocated to a variety of projects, including improvements to security infrastructure at the northern French ports, cooperation in facilitating returns, improving access to French domestic asylum procedures and ensuring that vulnerable migrants are provided with the support and care that they require. Precise details of these projects cannot be provided for reasons of security.

To date, €42.5 million of this package has been committed, and we are on track to allocate the remainder before the end of the 18/19 financial year. Both countries will continue to cooperate closely to prevent illegal migration and to maintain the security of our shared border as well as the operation of the juxtaposed controls.

The UK Government committed €50 million in order to implement a range of agreed actions under the terms of the 2018 Sandhurst Treaty. Payments from this package have been made across the course of the 18/19 financial year as and when required by specific projects. The agreed programme of work is designed to improve security at the shared border in Northern France, reduce illegal migration flows towards northern French ports and support France in returning migrants with no legal right to be in Europe. We are forecasting to spend the full package allocated to this work.

Within this package, £3.6 million was specifically allocated to funding the development of the Dublin process to support transfers of eligible children to the UK. The Dublin III Regulation is a long-standing mechanism between EU Member States to determine responsibility for examining asylum claims. The Government has committed to publishing regular updates on the number of requests processed under the Dublin III Regulation. The latest figures will be published on 28th February 2019 as part of the wider quarterly release of Migration Statistics.

Migration cooperation between the UK and France, including implementation of the Sandhurst Treaty is overseen by the senior official UK-France Migration Committee, which generally meets alternately in Paris and London on a bi-monthly basis. The minutes of those meetings are confidential and to disclose them would risk injuring relations with an important foreign ally.

The UK-France Migration Committee most recently met on 27 March 2018. The Committee routinely discusses ongoing co-operation on migration and border security, including how agreed funding should be spent. This meeting followed a similar pattern with a particular focus on implementing elements of the Sandhurst Treaty such as improvements to port security and infrastructure, and measures to reduce the impact of migration on Northern French ports.

The UK and France have a long-standing relationship on co-operating on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, including transfers of eligible children under the Dublin Regulation and section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. A constructive official-level meeting relating specifically to the asylum elements of the Sandhurst Treaty took place on 9 February. Cooperation continues on all elements of the Treaty, and the UK has appointed a Liaison Officer to France who will deploy in the coming weeks to support this work.

The Government will transfer 480 unaccompanied children from Europe to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. Over 220 children are already here and transfers are ongoing. We will not provide a running commentary on numbers. On 22 February 2018, the Home Office published data on the number of transfers into the UK from other Dublin states. The relevant statistics can be found at as_22_q, asylum volume 5 at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2017-data-tables. 2018 Dublin data will be published in February 2019.