CA-2025-002338 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1264

The first treaty is ECAT. The second is entitled “Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the French Republic on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys” (“the Treaty”).

The background of the Treaty, as Ms Grange explained, is that the numbers of people crossing the English Channel in boats have gone up significantly this year. About 44,000 crossed between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025. Some of those trying to cross the Channel die; 78 in 2024. The Treaty’s purpose is to prevent unauthorised crossings of the Channel. At the risk of over-simplification, the way the Treaty works is that it enables the United Kingdom, if certain conditions are met, to send back a person who has illegally crossed the Channel in a boat, and, in exchange, obliges the United Kingdom to accept into the United Kingdom from France, one other person, who has made an application from France under the Immigration Rules (HC 395 as amended) and has been accepted by Her Majesty’s Government for reciprocal admmission into the United Kingdom. Ms Grange accepted that the Treaty binds the two relevant states in international law, but that in England and Wales it has no effect in domestic law except to the extent that its provisions have been incorporated into domestic law. That had not been done. She told us on instructions that the French legal system, unlike that in England and Wales, has a monist approach to international law, but was unable to say whether, were he returned to France, CTK could enforce the provisions of ECAT against the French authorities if they did not abide by those provisions in his case.