We must do more to protect our borders

The Home Office rarely suffers a surfeit of praise, but the department deserves some credit over its plans to increase the capacity of Britain’s maritime border forces. The changes that we reveal today may strike some as being somewhat overdue – and there is something alarming about the fact that until now almost 1,000 miles of coastline have been patrolled by just three boats. Nevertheless, as this newspaper has, in recent weeks, repeatedly highlighted concerns about Britain’s border security and called for improvements, we prefer to see such changes as better late than never.

That does not mean that these measures alone will be adequate, however. Even with the additional resources that will be given to maritime patrols, in the form of a string of new vessels and three new maritime co-ordination hubs, the border force’s ability to patrol the seas around Britain will be limited at best. And giving all staff appropriate powers to board all vessels will mean little if those staff are too scarce to scrutinise the ships that could bring illegal immigrants.

So we must point out that still more has to be done. The need for even greater action is being very visibly demonstrated in the English Channel this week, as would-be migrants attempt clandestine crossings, often at risk to their own lives.

The fact that these desperate people are even in a position to attempt such crossings says something about the European Union and its handling of migration. Arguably, EU rules should mean that illegal migrants should be stopped and processed long before they reach the Channel. The fact that they have not been undermines arguments from the Remain campaign that being in the EU better secures Britain’s borders. Voters, always smarter than politicians realise, know that – which is why, as our poll shows today, a political focus on immigration boosts support for Brexit.

But for obvious reasons of geography, the EU’s failings on migration will be a problem for Britain whether or not we are in the EU. Regardless of the result of the referendum, more will have to be done to protect Britain’s borders – and that job will fall to the British government alone.