£200 MILLION MIGRANT ARMADA
Priti orders a fresh fleet of Border Force cutters that’ll watch Channel
‘Clearly, the safety of migrants is paramount’
PRITI Patel is to spend £200million on a fleet of border patrol boats as she steps up attempts to stop migrants crossing the Channel.
The Home Secretary has ordered a major replacement of Border Force’s five ageing cutters, official documents show.
The vessels could be used to block dinghies from entering UK waters – the controversial ‘pushback’ tactic announced this week.
The huge sum to upgrade the fleet comes on top of the £54million due to be handed to France for coastal patrols and surveillance – which could now be withheld following a diplomatic spat between Whitehall and Paris.
It comes as migrants continue to make it across the Strait of Dover, with 1,800 arriving along the South Coast this week alone.
Last night, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘As part of our ongoing investment into the UK’s border security, the planning process for the replacement of Border Force’s existing cutter fleet is in its early stages. No final decisions have been made.’
Tony Smith, former director-general of Border Force, said the current boats were in urgent need of replacement as they were originally only designed to be used by customs officers. ‘They aren’t really equipped to pick up migrants, so I am glad they are doing this,’ he added.
‘We have to accept that we now have an ongoing maritime threat and Border Force has to adapt.’
Most of the 137ft patrol boats are almost 20 years old. They can reach 26 knots, but are not equipped to detain suspected people smugglers or process asylum claims on board as other countries do.
The cutters are now used almost exclusively in the Channel after the first wave of migrant crossings meant two had to be redeployed from the Mediterranean.
The proposal, from the latest version of the Home Office’s procurement schedule, reveals that the process to upgrade the cutters will start in April.
The latest estimate for the cost of the programme is £200million, but it is unclear how many vessels will be built for this sum.
MPs on the Commons home affairs committee warned five years ago that the UK had a ‘worryingly low’ number of boats to patrol thousands of miles of coast.
The procurement document also shows plans are under way to spend £18million on drones to monitor the Strait of Dover, and £6million on aerial surveillance.
The plans follow a growing row over the record numbers of asylum-seekers making it across the Channel despite huge amounts of British taxpayers’ money being handed to France, supposedly to tackle the problem.
Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden said yesterday that the Home Secretary was right to threaten to withhold the £54million promised in July unless French police stop more boats setting sail.
The UK has given £192million to France since 2014, much of it used to toughen security and stop migrants stowing on cross-Channel lorries, ferries and trains.
Mr Dowden, the Culture Secretary, also backed Miss Patel’s proposal to get Border Force captains to stop the dinghies getting through, despite claims that it was impractical and unlawful.
He told LBC radio: ‘These people are going from a safe country, which is France, to England. So it’s right that we try and stop it – mainly because criminal gangs are the beneficiaries.
‘The Home Secretary’s looked at a huge range of different solutions – we’ve given extra money to the French border force, we’re introducing legislation and one of the things she’s looking at doing is turning boats back.
‘It’s appropriate to look at the full suite of those measures.
‘We have said that will include looking at turning migrants back, but only in accordance with international law. Clearly, the safety of migrants is paramount.’
Miss Patel’s French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, has warned he will not accept ‘financial blackmail’.
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart said the pushback tactic was ‘irresponsible’, and asked if Britain would open fire on migrants, adding: ‘Are they going to shoot at the boats and passengers?’
Home Office figures released last night show 1,801 people made it across the Channel in small boats this week. So far this year, around 14,500 have made the crossing – almost twice the 8,410 recorded in the whole of 2020.
EXASPERATED by the number of migrants illegally crossing the Channel, Priti Patel is splashing millions on new vessels to block their boats and return them to Calais.
The Home Secretary at least shows ambition. In today’s Mail, Australia’s former foreign affairs minister says that turning back smugglers’ dinghies successfully cracked the problem in his country.
Sadly, Ms Patel’s plan is doomed unless France agrees to take the occupants back to their beaches. Predictably, Paris has greeted that with an uninterested ‘non’.
So the risk is that her new armada become little better than extra water-taxis to carry the stranded to Dover – tempting even more to try their luck.
The best way, then, to stop this appalling and escalating racket is to convince migrants the trip is futile, destroying the gangsters’ business model.
Rather than throwing down the welcome mat, ministers must bring in watertight deterrents. One leaf to take out of Australia’s book is processing asylum claims offshore – either at home or abroad. If that’s unfeasible, migrants could be held in secure camps as cases are decided, not nice hotels.
Illegal arrivals should automatically forfeit their right to stay. Loopholes hindering deportation must be closed and the merrygo-round of repeated appeals ended.
The UK has a generous record of taking in those genuinely fleeing danger.
But many crossing the Channel from safe nations are economic migrants, jumping the immigration queue. That’s not fair.
As the public grows increasingly frustrated by the Tories’ border failures, knee-jerk gimmicks and empty promises will no longer cut the mustard.