Long-range cameras to see migrants on French coast
THE Home Office is trialling longrange thermal imaging cameras that can spot people on French beaches more than 20 miles away in a bid to halt the Channel migrants crisis.
The cameras have been placed on the cliffs over Dover and found to be capable of detecting people and vessels day or night on the French coast over the curvature of the Earth.
It would help alert French police and coastguard to migrants as soon as they put to sea, enabling them to pick them up long before they even approached British waters.
The Home Office and FLIR Systems, the thermal imaging company, declined to confirm the trials, but The Daily Telegraph understands officials are now assessing the system which could cost as much as £1million to buy.
The surveillance cameras are already being used in the Mediterranean on land, in helicopters and on drones to combat its migrant crossing crisis, and on the Mexican border where US state authorities are using them to catch illegal migrants and drug smugglers.
It comes amid a summer surge in migrants crossing the Channel, with 36 in three boats picked up and brought to Dover yesterday.
That followed 39 migrants on Tuesday including one wearing flippers caught three miles off the French coast. It brings the total for July so far to at least 135.
Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, said the cameras were potentially “game-changing technology” and urged the Government to invest in them. “It means we can detect people as soon as they set off from the French coast,” said Mr Elphicke.