PRITI IS ACCUSED OF ‘MILITARISING’ CRISIS
THE Home Secretary was last night embroiled in a furious row over claims she is ‘militarising’ the migrant crisis in the Channel.
Priti Patel’s plans to blockade the Channel to deter illegal migrants were described as a ‘declaration of war’ by the mayor of Calais.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds accused her of a ‘shameful’ bid to ‘militarise a humanitarian crisis’ and said she was ‘devoid of compassion’. Her spokesman called the criticism ‘bizarre.’
Mr Thomas-Symonds demanded to see the legal advice on this week’s deployment of military aircraft, and on potential use of the Royal Navy to ‘blockade’ migrant boats.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, said: ‘It’s a declaration of maritime war.’
Mr Thomas-Symonds said in a letter to Miss Patel: ‘The attempt to militarise a response to a humanitarian crisis is shameful. The approach being pursued by Government is lacking in competence and compassion.’
Under European Union rules, the Calais migrants should claim asylum in France because they have already reached a safe country.
But Mr Thomas-Symonds said the Calais migrants had ‘already faced extraordinary hardship’. He wrote: ‘Instead of pursuing a strategic approach, we have announcements aimed at headlines rather than meaningful action.
‘Your efforts have been devoid of compassion and should be replaced with a meaningful strategic approach, rather than headline-chasing announcements.’
Miss Patel’s official spokesman said: ‘This is an utterly bizarre letter. What do they want? Taxpayers to pay for the boats? Labour do not put forward a single suggestion of how to solve the issue.’
Yesterday, a specialist RAF surveillance aircraft was deployed over the Channel for the first time, on a day which saw 71 migrants arrive in six small vessels, after 96 came on Tuesday. It takes the total to have crossed this year to 4,468, compared with 1,850 in the whole of 2019.
New UK proposals will demand French co-operation in a new joint operation which will turn migrants boats back to France. Calais mayor Miss Bouchart expressed her hostility to Miss Patel’s proposals and blamed the UK’s asylum policies.
She said: ‘The British themselves create this pull factor by not wanting to review their reception systems.’
She added that Miss Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson would be better off reviewing the UK’s asylum system and creating safe legal routes.
Yesterday, 14 people who had arrived across the Channel on small boats were removed on a Home Office charter flight to France and Germany.
The migrants were identified as having previously claimed asylum, or spent significant periods of time in, European Union member states.