Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer unveiled a long-awaited “one in, one out” migration deal on Thursday, and put the European Commission in a bind. Southern member states, including Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, and Greece, had written to the EU executive, warning against bilateral migration pacts with the UK. They fear being left to deal with the human consequences as Britain ships asylum-seekers back to France, only for them to ricochet south under EU asylum rules. But now migrants arriving in the UK via small boat will be “detained and returned to France in short order”, Starmer said. And for every person who is deported or sent back, another person "with ties to the UK" will be allowed to come into the country from France. The scheme will launch in the coming weeks as a pilot, though full details remain under wraps. Macron said it will be signed “as soon as legal verification procedures have been completed, including those involving the European Union”. The Commission has maintained strategic ambiguity in recent weeks, trying to avoid direct comment on the UK-France rapprochement. But it’s not clear how long the Berlaymont can go on ignoring the bloc’s north-side divide. |