Illegal migrants wanting to cross the English Channel to reach the UK flock to the town in the north-west of France. A four-metre-high fence around the port will be built in an effort to prevent illegal boat crossings.

Large-scale construction work began around the port of Cherbourg in north-western France. A four-metre-high fence is being erected with British funding in an effort to make it more difficult for migrants to enter the UK by crossing the sea, the French regional newspaper Ouest-France writes. Illegal migrants wanting to reach the UK flock to the area, with many of them taking to small boats in an attempt to cross the English Channel.

2022 was a particularly busy year, seeing an unprecedented rise in the number of crossings. The number of illegal migrants who have made the Channel crossing in dinghies reaches nearly 40 thousand, marking a new record. This has led to increasingly tense diplomatic relations between the two countries. The British government has supported France with significant amounts of money in a bid to prevent crossings, but to no avail so far. Nevertheless, London and Paris agreed that the UK will pay an additional 72 million euros to France in order to increase the number of police officers patrolling the French coast by 40 per cent and to install more surveillance technology, the French interior minister announced on Twitter.

👉🏼Engagement du Royaume-Uni á verser 72,2 millions d’euros pour lutter contre l’immigration clandestine
👉🏼augmentation de 40% des effectifs á la frontière
👉🏼financement de nouveaux équipements de surveillance
👉🏼Renforcement de la coordination et du partage d’information pic.twitter.com/D9HEeRjNRF

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) November 14, 2022

France and the UK concluded an agreement on curbing illegal Channel crossings in mid-November, with the relevant ministers signing the document in the building of the interior ministry in Paris.

Avec mon homologue @SuellaBraverman, nous signons aujourd’hui l’engagement de nos deux pays á renforcer la coopération contre l’immigration clandestine trans-Manche ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Xspq6EUYRA

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) November 14, 2022

The fence to be erected in Cherbourg is another joint action, which will be implemented on French soil, with British funding. The cost of the investment reaches 3.2 million euros.

However, many are displeased with the project. Members of the Itinerance humanitarian organisation describe the wall to be built in the city centre as scandalous. The association argues that the the decision is unjustified as there are far fewer migrants in Cherbourg that in Calais.

The French political right, however, welcomes the construction of the fence. The only detail National Rally party member Jean-Michel Cadenas criticised on Twitter was the ‘slow’ pace of progress.

Autour du port de Cherbourg (50), une barrière de 4 mètres, financée par la Grande-Bretagne (3,2 millions d’€), est en cours de construction pour limiter les traversées de migrants. On y vient doucement…trop doucement !

— Jean-Michel CADENAS (@RassNational53) December 15, 2022