Fears UK is ‘on cusp’ of boat migrants surge

A FORMER Border Force chief has warned that the rise in the number of illegal migrants crossing the Channel is now so serious that there could be a repeat of the crisis in the 2000s, when up to 2,000 people a night attempted to enter the UK from France.

Tony Smith, who was directly in charge of border controls from 2005-7, said the record total of 202 migrants who crossed by boat on Thursday suggested Britain was “on the cusp” of a surge similar to that in the early 2000s. “It feels very worrying. I would estimate there were about 80,000 people who came in then, the vast majority from across the Channel,” he said.

“It sends a shiver down my spine remembering.”

The number of migrants who have reached the UK in small boats this year is already nearly double the 1,892 recorded for the whole of 2019.

Mr Smith, the former director general of the Border Force, said he and the Coastguard initially discounted the boat route as being too dangerous and difficult, but added: “That’s been proven wrong. It seems that they are coming across on surf boards.

“And as more see it can be done, more will come. It seems very easy. I fear we are now going to see ever-increasing numbers.”

He urged the UK and France to agree a deal under which all migrants caught at sea or on British land should be returned to France, where the UK would set up asylum processing centres. The idea would be similar to the “juxtaposed” immigration controls of 2001, when the UK moved officials to France.