‘We are deficient and the bad lads know this’
Home Secretary Javid back in UK as outcry grows over handling of Channel migrant crisis
Border Force officers at Kingsdown beach yesterday HOME Secretary Sajid Javid was on his way home last night as criticism grew over his “Dad’s Army” handling of the Channel migrant crisis.
In the latest incident along the Kent coast, six Iranian men were found on a beach early yesterday.
They apparently crossed the world’s busiest shipping lane in an inflatable boat from northern France.
Mr Javid was forced to cut short his Christmas family holiday in South Africa amid outcry at chaos in the Dover Strait.
Tory MP Rehman Chishti, who sits on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, blasted the “lack of leadership to get a grip on this issue”.
Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, said: “This cannot be done on the cheap with the half-hearted, Dad’s Army-type set-up suggested by the Home Office in the past.”
He demanded all five Border Force Cutters be deployed in the Channel as a deterrent. One is in the Channel and one each in the Mediterranean and Aegean.
Mr Elphicke added: “You don’t deter burglars by leaving your front door open.”
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson piled the pressure on his colleague, saying: “We have not had any requests as yet, but if the Home Office is in need of armed forces support then our Navy, Air Force and Army stand ready to assist.”
Mr Javid, tipped for a bid to be Prime Minister, claimed the number of vessels in the Channel was “under close review”.
The Iranian men were handed over to immigration authorities after arriving in Kingsdown, near Deal. It came after the number of migrants plucked from the A WHISTLEBLOWER warned three years ago that Britain’s east coast was vulnerable to illegal immigrants in small boats.
Retired Border Force officer Alan Dunn claimed colleagues were “probably two or three steps behind” migrants and people smugglers.
He said in 2016: “We have some detections of groups using small vessels to deliver small groups of people to quiet ports on the east coast and elsewhere.” He added: “We are deficient and the Channel by UK authorities since Christmas Day hit 94 over the weekend.
Mr Javid is due back at his desk today for crunch talks with senior Border Force and National Crime Agency officials.
Before boarding a plane yesterday he spoke by phone with French counterpart Christophe Castaner, who later said: “We are co-ordinating to strengthen our bad lads know this, they are not idiots. Now we have officers in fixed sites, in terms of numbers less than in the past, we don’t have the intelligence officers on the ground. We don’t have the same sort of mobility. The east coast is more open than it was, much more vulnerable.”
Lord Carlile QC, the former terror law watchdog, also warned in his reports of 2002 and 2008 that Britain’s border was vulnerable to migrants arriving in small marine vessels. Alan Dunn