The Home Secretary Priti Patel has defended a new £54.2 million deal with France aimed at stopping the rising number of migrants crossing the English Channel unlawfully.
The number of people crossing the Channel this year is now more than the total for all of 2020 and On Monday at least 430 migrants crossed the Channel, a record for one day. The previous daily high of 416 was set in September last year.
On Wednesday, a group of migrants was seen arriving at Dover unlawfully, bringing the total number this year to more than the 8,461 who made the crossing in 2020.
The deal agreed on Tuesday between London and Paris will see France double the number of police patrolling its beaches. It will also fund improved intelligence sharing and introduce better technology to target the gangs who organise the crossings.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton said “giving the French more money to carry on doing what they’re doing badly is not going to solve the problem.”
However, the Home Secretary claimed there had been a “complete change in modus operandi in terms of the crossings”, with a “widespread dispersal” of launches of small boats “along the whole French coastline” rather than people just coming from Calais.
She said France had intercepted more boats than they did this time last year, because the numbers are “so high” and are “going up.”
Border Force director general Paul Lincoln said last year France had made more than 2,100 interceptions of boats last year, while this year the figure was now over 6,000.
Calais MP Mr Dumont has suggested the new deal would not have an impact. he said: “The fact is, we’ve seen it before. Having more money, having more police officers, having more controls, will not prevent people to succeed in these crossing attempts.
“We have too many kilometres of shore to monitor.”
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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