MPS order new probe as migrant boats soar
ROCKETING numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats have alarmed MPS into relaunching an inquiry.
More than 3,000 have entered already in 2020, compared with just 2,000 who made it in the previous two years.
On Thursday alone, eight boats landed at Hastings with 86 migrants from Iran, Syria and the Yemen.
Last week 11 people were arrested in raids in London and Sheffield in which £150,000 and two vehicles were seized. Ten people were released under investigation.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Those arrested are suspected of being members of an organised crime group that are enabling the facilitation of illegal migrants using small boats.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “This is a clear message to those behind these reckless crossings. We will find you and we will stop at nothing to put you behind bars and strip you of your ill-gotten gains.”
A Home Affairs Committee inquiry had not resumed since the General Election in December.
A spokesman has told the Sunday Express a completely new inquiry would be convened this autumn.
He said: “The Committee will be launching an inquiry into Channel crossings. Terms of reference will probably be released next week, with [a] formal evidence session at some point when Parliament returns after recess.
“The Committee has essentially chosen to start afresh. It will include looking at why there seems to be a growth in Channel crossings, who is making the journey, what role does organised criminality play in this and is it replacing other routes into the UK?”
Two people, one Briton and an Albanian, were convicted and jailed in France last week. They and a third man from London were arrested last month as they prepared to leave Cherbourg in a small vessel.
Five Albanian migrants were on board.the boat had sailed to France from the Isle of Wight two days earlier.
At a court in Cherbourg, skipper Joshua Van Praagh, 25, from Portsmouth, was jailed for three years and banned from returning to France for 10 years. Albanian Armando Hodo, 25, was jailed for three years and banned from France.
A Londoner aged 54 was also convicted but has appealed.
National Crime Agency deputy director Matthew Long said: “People smugglers treat migrants as a commodity to be profited from and are content to put them in situations of extreme danger.”
‘Smugglers treat migrants as a commodity to be profited from and put them in situations of extreme danger’