European Union governments will refuse to negotiate an agreement to take back illegal migrants crossing the Channel to Britain if the UK does not back down in the Brexit trade talks, diplomats in Brussels warned on Wednesday. Talks are deadlocked over fishing, the level playing field guarantees, the future role of the European Court of Justice and Britain’s refusal to promise to stay in the European Convention of Human Rights. Britain will no longer be covered by the Dublin regulation once the Brexit transition period finishes at the end of the year. The EU law means an asylum seeker must claim asylum in the first EU country they arrive in. British negotiators have put two replacement agreements on the table. One would allow the swift return of illegal migrants who have arrived in the UK from the EU. The other allows unaccompanied migrant children to be reunited with families in either the UK or EU. EU diplomats warned that Brussels was under no obligation to negotiate the agreements because they were not part of Michel Barnier’s mandate or the Political Declaration setting out the goals of the negotiations. They pointed out the EU had leverage over Britain on migration because more illegal migrants transited through the bloc with the goal of reaching the UK than vice versa. “Turning the Channel into the Mediterranean might not be in most states’ interests,” one EU diplomat said, “but at this stage of the negotiations most member states do not see an immediate interest for the EU to discuss these issues.” “Neither of these issues is covered by the EU mandate,” an EU official said, “we have not engaged in discussions on these points as yet.” There has been a significant increase in migrants crossing the Channel in small boats due to the good weather and the impact of coronavirus on lorries, the Channel Tunnel and ferries. By last Thursday, about 1,730 migrants had crossed the Channel from France this year compared to 1,890 in the whole of last year. In May, the Government said it was planning new laws to force Channel migrants back to France and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, claimed the UK would be able to renegotiate Dublin with the EU. “Given the asymmetry of the migration flow it is not at the top of member states’ minds,” the EU diplomat warned during the fourth round of tough trade negotiations, which are being held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. “This migration stuff seems to be a rather newish addition to the UK demand list,” another EU diplomat said, “and it is definitely not the kind of agreement that is part of any previous EU trade deal.”
