£590m ...eye-watering amount Britain has spent failing to stop Channel people smugglers
BRITISH taxpayers have paid out £150,000 a day in a decade-long bid to tackle the Channel migrant crisis, the Daily Express can today reveal.
The domestic liability to tackle a problem that exists exclusively in France works out at £590million since 2010/11.
This colossal drain on the public purse can now be disclosed after the Express obtained Home Office documents laying bare the scale of the outlay. The total is equal to £54million a year.
But it has not stopped ruthless people trafficking gangs from forcing families to pay tens of thousands of pounds for the promise of safe passage to Britain.
Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said: “£590million since 2010/11 is truly eye-watering figure.
“In Australia a decade ago, prime minister Tony Abbott took decisive action to turn the boats around. Guess what happened? The boats stopped coming. It is time we took a similarly robust approach, or the migrant crisis on our shores could soon become like that of the Mediterranean in 2015.”
The revelation comes after Home Secretary Priti Patel repeatedly promised to fix Britain’s “broken asylum system”.
Despite huge sums of cash gifted to France to bolster security in and around Calais, this year has seen record numbers successfully cross the Channel illegally on small boats.
The number of Channel migrants reaching the UK in dangerously small craft has already reached a record 20,000 this year – more than double last year’s total.
Last week, a migrant trying to reach Britain drowned and a passenger ferry stopped in the Channel to aid a stricken vessel.
A week earlier, three migrants were believed to have drowned after falling overboard off the coast of Harwich, Essex. In August, a 27-yearold Eritrean man drowned when a migrant boat sank off the coast of northern France.
And last year, an Iranian family of five – including a 15-month-old baby – drowned off the coast of Dunkirk.
Many are forced to navigate the perilous 21-mile crossing in overcrowded and unseaworthy craft.
The Daily Express used Freedom of Information laws to demand how much taxpayers’ cash had been spent attempting to deter illegal immigration from France.
Official figures reveal the bill now stands at £536.1million.
In addition, a bilateral arrangement between the UK and France, reached on July 20, saw the Government pledge a further £54million. This brings the taxpayer liability to £590.1million in just 11 years.
The figure relates to Border Force measures to prevent illegal migration at the ports of Calais and Dunkirk, and the Eurostar terminal in Coquelles, and additional funding promised to France by the Home Office under bilateral agreements.
However, it is likely to be underestimated as it does not include the cash spent by other taxpayer-funded departments and operational partners.
Data shows that in 2010/11, £39million was spent, a figure that rocketed to £111million in 2015/16 at the peak of the crisis when the notorious Jungle Camp was home to 10,000 migrants.
In 2018/19 taxpayers forked out £56million. In 2019/20 the figure was £31million while, in 2020/21, the British public stumped up £28million.
The UK has now started to pay France the first instalments of its £54million pledge.
This is despite the Home Secretary threatening to withhold the money because France was failing to do enough to stop small boats entering UK waters.
Dangerous
The Home Office said securing the border and successfully tackling illegal migration required “continued investment”.
It added: “These journeys are illegal, dangerous, unnecessary and facilitated by violent criminal gangs profiting from misery.
“We continue to work with the French to stop people leaving France in the first place, and the Government’s New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken asylum system which attracts so many illegal migrants, making it firm on those who seek to abuse our hospitality and fair on those in genuine need.
“Our investment in security has substantially reduced illegal migration through French ports and has helped keep passengers and goods moving safely in and out of the UK.”