FRONTEX SENDS SHIPS TO ENGLISH CHANNEL AND NORTH SEA

PARIS, SEPTEMBER 4 /SRNA-Reuters/ - The European Union's border agency Frontex will send boats out into the English Channel and the North Sea to help search for and rescue migrants, officials said on Friday, days after France and Britain's leaders met and discussed migration.

The France-based Maritime Prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea said that the Frontex agency will send out two Spanish boats from September to October, and then one from Lithuania up to January, to join French patrols.

"In response to the ongoing migration crisis in the Channel, Frontex will deploy patrol vessels to complement temporarily French assets engaged in search and rescue operations," the statement reads.

The Channel is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and many migrants have died in its strong currents trying to cross from France to Britain. Human traffickers regularly overload dinghies, leaving them barely afloat.

Migration is one of Europe's most divisive political issues, including in Britain where the ruling Labour party is facing a challenge from the populist Reform UK party, which has vowed to stop migrants arriving in boats.

Britain said in April it would pay France up to £660 million ($892.72 million) under a three-year border security deal to curb illegal ‌migrant crossings of the Channel, with part of the funding contingent on results.