Legal fears for yachtsmen who save migrants
Royal Yacht Association tells members they could be prosecuted for people smuggling under draft law
THE Royal Yacht Association has warned its members against rescuing migrants amid fears they could be prosecuted and jailed for people smuggling.
Sailors were advised to “stand off and report” migrants rather than rescue them in face of draft laws that would prosecute them if they saved asylum seekers from drowning and brought them ashore. The RYA has joined MPS in opposing the plan which also criminalises migrant rescues in the Channel by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute if they bring them to shore.
The row centres on a clause in the Home Office Immigration and Nationalities Bill which removes the words “for gain” and increases the sentences for smuggling into the UK from 14 years to life imprisonment.
The law previously limited prosecutions to paid people smugglers but the changes could criminalise sailors and the RNLI if they rescued an asylum seeker and landed them in Dover.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has promised an amendment that will exclude RNLI crews and other rescue organisations by distinguishing them from smugglers operating for profit. But the Government has yet to spell it out and it is not clear whether it will include sailors on yachts.
Tom Pursglove, the immigration minister, said: “The issues are complex and we must ensure we do not inadvertently provide loopholes to be exploited by criminal gangs who will look for any means to avoid prosecution.”
Neil Coyle MP said: “The Bill seeks to make UK citizens bad Samaritans. The clause requires turning a blind eye. It requires people to watch other people die. It is a sickening extension of the culture war. It is in breach of our international obligations and law.
The proposed changes risk Uk-flagged vessels being pushed into a Kafkaesque Catch-22: assist those in distress and risk criminal liability or do not assist, breach duties of international law and witness the deaths of others.”
Stuart Carruthers, of the RYA, said: “Our advice is to be very careful going to the rescue. You are not under any obligation to do it but you are under an obligation to report it and explain why you are standing off
“You could have a massive bureaucratic problem and be tied up in bringing illegal immigrants into the country. Our advice is to stand off and report.”
Even in cases where a yacht could rescue maybe one or two people, Mr Carruthers said it could deter helping them. “It potentially criminalises people for trying to save life and putting them on a British shore. That can’t be right,” he said.
More than 25,700 migrants have reached the UK so far this year, treble the total for the whole of 2020. France announced yesterday that it was spending £10million on 100 high speed boats, 4x4 vehicles and quad bikes to intercept migrants on the beaches.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, also said it included night vision equipment, thermal cameras, lamps and tactical lighting projectors.