France stops only one in five migrants crossing Channel
ONLY one in five migrants attempting to cross the Channel has been intercepted by French authorities.
Speaking after a visit to Paris to try to solve the crisis in which a record number of asylum seekers have crossed this year, Chris Philp, the immigration minister, said French officials were “doing a great deal of work”. “They’ve intercepted well over 1,000 people so far this year,” he said.
However the total number of migrants to have made it to the UK in small boats is around 4,100, which suggests only around a fifth are being stopped by the French.
In the past few days alone, more than 600 people have made the journey by boat.
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, accused French authorities of “half-heartedness” in their approach to tackling the growing problem.
“The French are unable to cope at the best of times,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“In normal circumstances the French are only preventing around half of the dinghies crossing the Channel but during the current spike that’s dropped to a fifth, so it’s clear that only with greater maritime collaboration with the British can we attempt to significantly reduce the success rate of the crossing.”
Mr Ellwood added that the low rate “justifies why during this heightened period our Armed Forces also need to be involved”.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, described the figures as “clearly too low” and urged the French “to control the beaches and stop them launching their boats”.
During the meeting of Mr Philp and the French government, it was pledged to make the route “completely unviable”, and “a new comprehensive joint operational plan” had been discussed in order to achieve this. Mr Philp promised a “new, comprehensive action plan” that involved a “number of measures, some of them new, which are under discussion”.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the Home Office has chosen not to make these measures public because officials “don’t want the smugglers to know what’s going on”, but some measures believed to be under consideration are increasing foot patrols and drone surveillance along the coast.
‘Only with greater collaboration can we reduce success rate of the crossing’
GREATER foot patrols and drones are among measures being considered to combat the record flow of migrants, The Daily Telegraph understands.
A number of senior Conservative MPS told this newspaper that foot patrols along the coast and surveillance of the area conducted by drones were the “most likely” measures that will be implemented following talks yesterday between Chris Philp, the immigration minister, and the French government. After a meeting in Paris, Mr Philp promised a “new, comprehensive action plan” that involved a “number of measures, some of them new, which are under discussion”.
When asked if foot patrols would be stepped up as part of the action plan, a French government source said: “We have already deployed additional security forces. Foot patrols are all very well but we’ve got about 500km (300 miles) of coastline to patrol so we’ll need more than just that. The increased use of drones may be a good solution to alert our forces on the ground to where migrants are preparing to put out to sea.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said: “There needs to be more people patrolling key beaches. The French need to control the beaches and stop them launching their boats. The second thing is to turn them back at the demarcation line in the Channel.”
He added that while there are miles of coastline, the migrants’ vessels “are mostly launched within spitting distance of Calais because they want the shortest crossing”. “They’re not launching from Normandy,” he said. “They are launching from Calais because they can see England from there.”
Sir John Hayes, a former security minister who is heading up the newly formed Common Sense Group, will meet with Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, via Zoom today to discuss what measures can be implemented to aid the problem.
He said the plan would likely assess how to “stop people arriving in Calais, stop people departing from Calais and then stop them when they have departed”. “I’d be surprised if the new measures didn’t include enhanced measures both at land and sea,” he said.
“Increased patrols at land and sea would be fundamental to these measures. It’s not as if we are talking about something really radical or different here,” he added.
“This is what countries do on their beaches, they are not unaccustomed to having arrangements whereby we check people’s safety at sea from beaches.” He cautioned that the UK had “to be sure the French will actually do it because rhetoric is one thing, reality is another”.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence committee, said: “The two areas where you can intercept those attempting to make the crossing is on the floor and that requires additional foot patrols along the French coastline, and secondly, interception at sea, which is more of a challenge.
“If we are serious about preventing the illegal crossing then intervention prior to the dinghy entering the water has to happen.”
The French government source added that they were “doing everything in its power, with additional security forces deployed, to stop migrant crossings”.
However, he acknowledged that the numbers had risen sharply.
Xavier Bertrand, the Conservative president of the northern French region that encompasses Calais, said the funding France receives from the UK for border control was insufficient to police the entire Channel coast and more drones were needed.