HELP US BLOCKADE THE CHANNEL
Priti issues migrant ultimatum to French – and threatens to withhold cash if they refuse
PRITI Patel will today demand French co-operation in a massive new ‘blockade’ of the Channel to crack down on the migrant crisis.
The Home Secretary will refuse to hand over any more taxpayers’ money to fund operations on French soil unless Emmanuel Macron’s government steps up action on illegal crossings.
The French will also be expected to accept deportations of larger numbers of migrants who cross illegally, as well as failed asylum seekers, as part of a potential £30million deal.
In proposals being outlined at a summit in Paris with Home Office minister Chris Philp this morning, it is understood the UK will set out how it hopes migrant boats can be barred from crossing the strait.
Royal Navy vessels and Border Force patrol boats will be used to block their path, even deploying nets to entangle propellers and floating ‘booms’, it is understood.
French patrol boats, which currently ‘escort’ migrant boats across the Channel, will be expected to take part in the operation to return the small ships to French beaches, officials said. In a further demand, more migrants who reach British shores should be sent straight back to France.
However, it is understood the proposed deal will not set a target for the number of deportations.
The UK will also urge the French to fingerprint migrants in the Calais camps. Migrants’ ‘biometrics’ will then be uploaded to an existing EU database, known as EURODAC, so that anyone who later claims asylum in the UK can be returned under EU rules.
In the last five years the UK has given France £114million to fund operations against illegal migrants and people traffickers. But numbers are spiralling, with more than 4,300 arriving so far this year compared to 1,850 in all of 2019.
Yesterday British military assets were deployed for the first time to tackle the flow of small boats, with an RAF aircraft carrying out a surveillance flight. Miss Patel also boarded a police launch from Dover to witness operations.
‘The number of illegal small boat crossings we have seen recently is totally unacceptable,’ she said.
‘Our operational partners are dealing with complex challenges associated with them and collectively with the French we need to make this route unviable.
‘Across Government we are absolutely committed to shutting down this route and we will bring down the criminal gangs that facilitate these illegal crossings.’ Defence
Secretary Ben Wallace has told military chiefs to ‘leave no stone unturned’. As an ‘initial offer of support’, an RAF Airbus A400M Atlas was sent to monitor the coast.
The Home Office has appointed a former Royal Marine to head up operations. Dan O’Mahoney accompanied Miss Patel on her patrol yesterday.
The PM’s official spokesman said: ‘We are currently bound by the [EU’s] Dublin Regulations for returns and they are inflexible and rigid – for example, there is a time limit placed on returns, it’s something which can be abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here.
‘At the end of this year we will no longer be bound by the EU’s laws so can negotiate our own returns agreement.’ It came as a group of 23 Conservative politicians called for tougher action, urging ministers to do ‘whatever it takes’.
But French politicians questioned the feasibility of any plan which would involve Royal Navy vessels turning back migrants.
MP for Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We are already trying to do whatever we can, but if you’ve got dozens of crossings a day, that’s very difficult for us to stop a boat. It only takes five minutes to have a small boat at sea full with migrants, with a coast of 300km to monitor.’ Asked about the Royal
‘We need to make route unviable’
‘Do whatever it takes’
Navy getting involved, he said: ‘Technically speaking that won’t change anything.’
Yesterday an inflatable dinghy carrying around 20 Syrians was met by Border Force patrol boat Hunter at about 7.15am with the White Cliffs of Dover in sight.
It means more than 730 have arrived so far in August, including a daily record of 235 last Thursday. Miss Patel vowed last year that crossings would become an ‘infrequent phenomenon’ by now.