Kentish Express Ashford & District
Javid apologises over migrant boat numbers confusion
Home Secretary fails to give Channel figures
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has had to apologise to MPs after he failed to provide a select committee with details of the number of boats carrying would-be migrants picked up in the Channel.
The cross-party Home Affairs committee was left unable to quiz the secretary of state in detail about operations in the English Channel and if boats had been intercepted by the French and UK authorities.
Mr Javid apologised for what he described as confusion over the details the committee had wanted.
He had been asked by committee chairman Yvette Cooper for a breakdown on the number of boats but acknowledged he only had details of the number of people.
Mrs Cooper said Home Office officials had attended a committee session in which MPs had made it very clear they wanted to ask questions about the boat numbers: “Given this was one of the issues we intended to raise today, I am slightly surprised.”
She went on to ask the Home Secretary if he had any details on the number of boats detained by the French authorities and UK authorities.
Mr Javid said that while he had some figures, they were about people rather than boats, telling MPs that in 2018 there had been 516 individuals picked up in boats and about 40% of those had been picked up by French border officials. He added that so far this year, the authorities had seen an increase in numbers, with January seeing 47 people picked up, rising to 79 in February.
But Yvette Cooper said she was astonished the committee had not been provided with the breakdown on boats: “I am baffled that no-one has these figures...this was something you described as a major incident a few months ago.”
The government would want to know these details given the Home Office had “put a whole load of resources into [monitoring] the Channel,” she added.
It led to an apology from the Home Secretary, who said he had not been told the committee wanted detailed breakdown on the number of boats rather than people.
MPs were told at a meeting of the committee on Tuesday last week that migrants attempting to cross the English Channel were calling 999 so they could be rescued the authorities. Kent Police Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said people making the journey to Britain in small boats “want to be found”.