725 Channel migrants reach UK despite Javid crackdown

Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s crackdown on migrants crossing the Channel in small boats was branded a failure after he admitted yesterday that soaring numbers had reached Britain.

So far this year, 725 men, women and children have arrived after making the perilous journey from northern France to Kent – more than double the number for the whole of 2018. Last December mr Javid declared a ‘major incident’ as a rising number of flimsy vessels crossed the world’s busiest shipping lane.

He signed off a £20,000-a-day bill for the use of two Navy vessels to patrol Britain’s coastline until extra Border Force cutters returned from the mediterranean. The aim was to deter migrants from risking their lives to reach the UK. But mr Javid told mPs yesterday that HmS mersey and HmS Protector had not rescued a single migrant during five weeks in the Channel in January and February – despite landing the Home office with a £780,000 bill.

He insisted the deployment was not a waste of resources after Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Yvette Cooper suggested it was not ‘value for money’. mr Javid, who is in the running to be promoted to Chancellor if Boris Johnson is crowned Tory leader today, has faced ongoing criticism amid concerns he botched the response to the crisis.

Critics warned at the time that the decision to deploy cutters would only encourage migrants to risk their lives on the hazardous trip in the belief they will be rescued and brought to the UK. The Home Secretary also agreed with his French counterparts to increase surveillance and co-ordination to prevent desperate migrants setting sail from France in the first place.

Figures show in 2018 British and French authorities encountered 562 individuals with 297 reaching the UK’s shores.

But so far in 2019 they have intercepted 1,150 migrants, with 725 making it to the UK. The others went back to France.

Giving evidence to the committee, mr Javid said: ‘This is the busiest sea lane in the world. It is very treacherous. People have been trying to cross in all sorts of weather conditions. It is increasingly dangerous. It has been my absolute priority to make sure we are doing everything we can to try to prevent the loss of life.

‘So far we don’t know of any loss of life so for that reason alone the declaration of this as a major incident has been a major success.’ But Tory committee member Rehman Chishti said: ‘The reality is the numbers of individuals trying to cross has increased. one reason [for the operation] was to deter that and it has not worked.

‘The numbers are up. many people want to know what’s going wrong.’

‘People want to know what’s going wrong’