The United Kingdom plans to use its aid budget to help the European Union cut the number of asylum-seekers arriving from Africa, in the first development policy shift made by its new Labour government.
The two parties are seeking to strike an agreement to work together to stem unauthorized crossings of the Mediterranean through measures to “deter people from leaving in the first place,“ said U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Lammy announced a deal would involve “combined aid budgets,” without revealing whether the money would come from within the existing official development assistance allocation or from a top-up to it.