SAFE HARBOUR IN BRITAIN IS ALL TOO EASY AN OPTION FOR MIGRANTS

NOT EVEN year’s end but figures show that 21,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel this year and despite the worsening weather the numbers are not slowing.

The so-called cooperation of the French is a joke. The truth is that on the French shore the traffickers operate freely, hardly bothering to take the trouble to hide themselves.

Most of the so-called “refugees” are not fleeing anything and even if they were they are safe in France.

So they set sail from the French shore, having paid their exorbitant fees, the French nod them on their way, and they head west. They do not even seek to avoid the waiting British patrol vessels but head straight for them, confident that…..

First, they will be taken aboard if their own craft is flaky, or taken in tow if it is seaworthy. Landed on the British shore, they will be lodged in a comfy commandeered hotel – a lot nicer than a tent under the trees in France – and “processed”. Meaning laboriously interviewed then returned to their hotel to resume their ping-pong.

So far not a single one has been returned. It sounds harsh but there is only one recourse for the British authorities and it would cost a few bob. Fly them back – not to France but to their original native land. The message would spread like wildfire and the disincentive would be massive.

Who wants to slog their way across the globe to be flown back home again to Far East Asia or wherever? They would simply swallow hard and apply for settlement in France – or any other European safe country.

But the present travesty is a waste of time and money and makes us look like a laughing stock.