CCTV cameras will be set up along French coast in bid to bring halt to Channel migrant crossings
- Up to 60 CCTV cameras along French coast to stop migrants crossing Channel
- They will cover more than ten miles of seafront on lookout for people-smugglers
- Costs for £170,000 ‘Terminus’ project will be covered by Treaty of Sandhurst
Up to 60 CCTV cameras paid for by UK taxpayers are to be installed along more than ten miles of French coast in a bid to stop migrants crossing the Channel.
They will cover more than ten miles of seafront on the lookout for people- smugglers driving migrants to the sea.
A dozen will line beaches at Sangatte, 14 in Wissant, seven in Ambleteuse and five in Audresselles. More sites are set to be agreed but UK authorities will not be able to access the images.
Costs for the £170,000 ‘Terminus’ project will be covered by the Treaty of Sandhurst signed by the UK and France in 2018.
Up to 60 CCTV cameras paid for by UK taxpayers are to be installed along more than ten miles of French coast in a bid to stop migrants crossing the Channel (file image)
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said: ‘These CCTV cameras will only make a difference if the French authorities take action on what they see…’
The surveillance cameras will be active ‘24 hours a day, seven days a week,’ said a spokesman for the local prefecture that cover the Pas de Calais.
He added that ‘images will be sent back in real time to police and gendarmerie operatives’.
As many as 20 municipalities in the Pas-de-Calais region are understood to have come forward to benefit from British funding, according to French daily newspaper Voix du Nord.
A dozen will line beaches at Sangatte, 14 in Wissant, seven in Ambleteuse and five in Audresselles. More sites are set to be agreed but UK authorities will not be able to access the images. Pictured: Migrants arriving in Dover after crossing the English Channel
The surveillance cameras will be active ‘24 hours a day, seven days a week,’ said a spokesman for the local prefecture that cover the Pas de Calais. Pictured: Migrants arriving in Dover after crossing the English Channel
The cameras will have four heads for 360 degree coverage and will be more advanced than the usual CCTV systems found in French towns.
French authorities said the new surveillance network will also prevent the theft of boat engines in the area and stamp out the ‘constant’ littering of petrol canisters and lifejackets.
Audresselles mayor, Antoine Benoît, welcomed the system and said it ‘should help the police and the gendarmerie to fight against human trafficking’.
But he added: ‘We will only sign the decrees when we have seen the English money arrive.’
Brigitte Passebosc, mayor of Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, one of the towns involved, said there are expected to be least 60 cameras in all.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on specific security arrangements for operational reasons.
‘We are determined to break the business model of dangerous criminal people smugglers and prevent further loss of life in the Channel. It is right that we pursue all options to prevent illegal crossings and protect life at sea.’