Aircraft to be deployed to spot migrant boats
British, French and Belgian officials seek joint Channel initiative with Europol and border and crime agencies
‘This is no place for children. We have to go by boat. We cannot stay here any longer’
SURVEILLANCE planes could be used to detect migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, under new EU plans.
Earlier this month, officials from Britain, France and Belgium met Europol and Frontex, the EU border security agency, to form plans to stem the tide of clandestine journeys across the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Last year, despite an “enhanced action plan” between Britain and France, costing millions of pounds, 3,339 people attempted the crossing, with 1,948 reaching the UK. This week 54 people made it to Britain, with a further 64 picked up by the French.
Officials were shocked when a boat carrying 14 people left from a Belgian beach for the first time but capsized just offshore. Bram Degrieck, the mayor of De Panne, the border town just six miles east of Dunkirk from where the boat launched, said: “I was scared that a child would wash up on the beach. That would have been a tragedy.”
The strategy involves enhanced surveillance and more information sharing. And, for the first time in decades, aeroplanes could play a role in UK border security.
Carl Decaluwé, the governor of Western Flanders, said: “We are looking at what is possible with manned and unmanned aircraft – aeroplanes, super-drones, drones.”
The measures have been supported by all three countries and would be paid for by the EU, through Frontex. Planes are faster and can cover more distance than drones and are often equipped with better technology, Mr Decaluwé explained.
“Sometimes, with the small boats, you don’t see them with drones. Planes can have very good cameras,” he said. “My target is really to hope that we have no more deaths. On Tuesday we were very lucky.”
Mr Degrieck said he was hopeful that the new approach could make a difference. “It is impossible to guard our beaches 24/7. Planes make sense. Covering 70 kilometres with a plane might be good,” he said.
“We know that this is possible and they are talking about it.”
The Home Office confirmed that an official-level tripartite meeting took place on Jan 15 between UK, French and Belgian officials, “where improved intelligence exchange was discussed”.
A government spokesman said: “We are tackling illegal migrant crossings on all fronts with every agency including Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, the National Crime Agency and policing teams working in tandem with the French and Belgians.
“And it’s having an impact. The fact that the organised crime groups are changing the way they operate is evidence of this.
“That is why we have been engaging with the Belgian authorities, particularly in recent months, to work together on criminal investigations, support security enhancements and increased intelligence sharing.
“This is on top of the extra patrols on French beaches, drones, specialist vehicles and detection equipment – which have already been deployed to stop small boats leaving European shores.”
However, judging by a sprawling makeshift camp in a disused warehouse complex outside Dunkirk, the new measures do not seem to be deterring anyone. When The Daily Telegraph visited the complex earlier this week a fight broke out among the migrants and one youth used a kitchen knife to attack another boy, slashing him across his right hand. Twelve people had to step in to separate them.
“This is no place for children,” said Omar, an Iraqi who has been in the camp with his wife and two young sons for eight months. “We have to go by boat. We cannot stay here any longer.”
The call had already been made. A gang member in a balaclava visited the camp and arranged payment – €4,000 for adults and €2,000 for children.
“When I told my boys, they started crying. They are scared of the sea. We spent days in a boat crossing the Mediterranean. But to the UK, it is only four hours. We have to go.”