French Navy Helps Migrants Cross The Channel

On Sunday morning a boat carrying fifty migrants was escorted across the English Channel by the French Navy. The boat travelled through treacherous conditions. It was closely followed by a French warship before a British Border Force craft intercepted it and took it to Dover.

The watercraft was teeming with men. It was one of several to make the precarious journey crossing the busiest shipping lane in the world. A local fisherman described the crossing as “appalling.” He said there was near-zero visibility and the boat was low and unsteady. The French Navy escorted the vessel across the channel and then it was handed over to a Border Force craft and taken to Dover.

This particular issue comes as records rise in terms of migrant crossings. In fact, there have been over 9,600 people who have made the trek so far this year. There have been more arrivals recorded from January to April than in the same four-month period in any year since data started being collected on the Channel crossings in 2018.

Shadow home security officer named Chris Philp has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of losing control of their borders. In mid-April he declared that the prime minister’s plans to dismantle gangs were ineffective. He said that having cancelled the Rwanda deterrent before it started and offered no replacement, Starmer’s only plan for border protection is to hope for bad weather.

A spokesman from the Home Office informed the public that it was amping up partnerships with France and other countries to tackle people smuggling gangs’ business models and introduce tougher enforcement under new laws. He proceeded to say that they want to end dangerous small boat crossings, as they threaten lives and undermine broader security.

Continuing with his comments, he reiterated that this was the reason that the government was investing in border security, increasing returns and imposing a major crackdown to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.