Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2020 to Questions 27050 and 27051, how many Gendarmes reservists have been deployed; and how many small boat crossings have been prevented under the 2019 Small Boats Joint Action Plan.

As noted in the Addendum to the Small Boats Joint Action Plan, signed in September 2019, the UK has since October 2019 funded deployments of 45 officers per day along the French coast to bolster existing French resources. These deployments have proven to be an effective method for detecting attempted crossings across the English Channel.

Over the course of April and May 2020, the French stopped over 1,000 migrants from making this perilous journey. They also prevented over 200 migrants from making the journey last week. The National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the UK Police will continue to work closely with French authorities to crack down on the criminals who facilitate the crossings.