‘No quick fix’ after Channel tragedy
HOME Secretary Priti Patel said there is “no quick fix” to tackle people crossing the Channel to get to the UK in small boats as France demanded fresh assistance and dozens more made the perilous crossing in the wake of the deadliest day of the crisis on record.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was requesting “extra help” from the UK yesterday as authorities revealed that pregnant women and children were among the at least 27 people who died when a dinghy capsized off the coast of Calais.
Ms Patel said the drownings were a “dreadful shock” and described the crossings as “absolutely unnecessary” after renewing an offer of sending British officers to join patrols on French beaches during a call with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin.
But the scale of the problem was further illustrated by new figures from the Home Office showing asylum claims in the UK have hit their highest level for nearly 20 years, fuelled by soaring Channel migrant crossings and a rise in numbers following the coronavirus pandemic.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer expressed his frustration that the Home Secretary “isn’t doing anything to deal with this effectively” following the “heartbreaking tragedy”.
In an urgent statement to MPs, Ms Patel said: “What happened [on Wednesday] was a dreadful shock, it was not a surprise but it is also a reminder of how vulnerable people are put at peril when in the hands of criminal gangs.
“There is also no quick fix. This is about addressing long-term pull factors, smashing the criminal gangs that treat human beings as cargo and tackling supply chains.”
After the Prime Minister was understood to have made the same offer in an emergency call with Mr Macron, Ms Patel said she had made a “very clear” offer to her French counterpart of British officers taking part in “joint patrols to prevent these dangerous journeys from taking place”.
But Pierre-Henri Dumont, the MP for Calais, dismissed the “crazy” proposal that he said “will not change anything” along the vast shoreline.
Speaking during a visit to Croatia, Mr Macron said: “We are going to ask for extra help from the British because all these men and these women don’t want to stay in France.
“We tell them they’re obviously able to do so, and there are centres in Calais and Dunkirk where they can go, but we’re going to reinforce in fact saving them at sea.”
As French politicians pointed the finger at UK authorities for failing to tackle the issue, two more small boats carrying desperate individuals were believed to have arrived on British shores.
One group wearing life jackets and wrapped in blankets were seen huddled together on board an RNLI lifeboat before disembarking in Dover yesterday morning. High winds put a stop to the crossings later in the day.
As a former prosecutor, Sir Keir said he would “take a lot of persuading” that the evidence was not there earlier to make the arrests of five suspected smugglers believed to have been involved and prevent the latest deaths as he called for greater cooperation with France.
“We’ve got to improve our law enforcement here because the people smugglers, the traffickers have got a real hold on these desperate people, we’ve got to break that,” he told reporters.
“I’m also frustrated that the Home Secretary makes no end of headline-grabbing statements but isn’t doing anything to deal with this effectively.”
Speaking to French radio network RTL, Mr Darmanin earlier blamed human trafficking gangs who promised people the “El Dorado of England” for a large fee.
Mr Darmanin said the boat which sank had been very flimsy, likening it to “a pool you blow up in your garden”.
He was unable to state the nationalities of the victims, but said the two survivors of the wreck were Somali and Iraqi and had been treated for severe hypothermia.
The French prosecutors’ office tasked with investigating the incident said the dead included 17 men, seven women and two boys and one girl believed to be teenagers.
The French authorities have arrested five suspected people traffickers in connection with the incident, and the French prosecutors’ office said magistrates are investigating potential charges of homicide, unintentional wounding, assisting illegal migration and criminal conspiracy.