Priti: Use Navy in migrant crisis
A ‘FURIOUS’ Priti Patel last night backed sending Royal Navy patrols into the English Channel after a record number of migrants reached Britain.
Officials have been ordered to draw up plans in which, for the first time, the Navy could turn back boats.
Yesterday, up to 250 migrants made the perilous crossing – the highest daily total since the crisis began, surpassing the record of 202 on Thursday last week.
The number who have reached Britain so far this year is now already double the total who arrived in the whole of 2019.
Nearly 3,950 migrants made the crossing in small boats in the first 219 days of 2020 – compared with 1,850 last year.
The crisis is a personal blow for the Home Secretary, who made a pledge last October that crossings would be virtually eliminated by now. A Home Office source said: ‘The final straw was this record number, which led the Home Secretary to demand this new initiative. The real solution must come from the French – we want the French to take them back.’
It is understood smaller craft would be used, rather than larger vessels such as frigates or destroyers. The Royal Marines could play a key role, sources said.
Yesterday’s arrivals included at least ten young children and a heavily pregnant woman, who were aboard a boat that landed on Dungeness beach in Kent.
One of the children, a boy aged around four, looked exhausted as he lay on the pebble beach with his arms spread out. The pregnant woman looked weary and had her head in her hand at one point, after being picked up by lifeboat.