Westminster must take firm action now to end passage of fake refugees to UK

If the UK is to stop the people trafficking of wealthy Iranians and others who are paying to cross the English Channel, Westminster should legislate as Australia has done, i.e. anyone who enters the UK illegally will be turned away, even if they would normally have a strong case for asylum.

At the moment the River Class Patrol Ship HMS Mersey is on what could be a long deployment in the English Channel and will be joined by two border force cutters.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has claimed that having only five to patrol the UK’S 7723-mile coastline is worryingly low – France has 40, Spain 147 and Italy 600. What is more disturbing, as we face the threat of a humanitarian disaster in winter weather, is that those being rescued are not fleeing persecution or war. They are economic migrants increasingly mirroring the experience in the Mediterranean.

It has long been a principle of international law that a refugee should seek asylum in the first safe country – the Kent coast is nowhere near Iran.

Equally galling is that the UK Government is increasingly dependent on the RNLI, who have been out day after day (including Christmas) rescuing those being trafficked. One trip, complete with a Coastguard helicopter, costs £1,500. The trafficker sounds the alarm soon after the boat has left France, but is not in distress, and awaits rescue.

The humanitarian RNLI is a publicly funded charity and has an obligation to help refugees, not facilitate the traffickers’ game.furthermore,the RNLI cannot be in two places at once.they rescued 30,000 people in 2018 but, if they are picking up commercial passengers, what happens if there is a genuine emergency?

If Westminster changed the law, there would no longer be any point in people paying the trafficker.

JOHN V LLOYD

Keith Place , Inverkeithing, Fife