Migration Watch UK press comment

We may see 5,000 more illegal Channel arrivals by Christmas

They were four times higher during the first half of this year
Numbers have previously grown during the latter months of the year

The number of people arriving in the UK via illegal Channel crossing is on course to reach at least 7,500 in 2020 should they continue at the rate seen since January with little effective action taken to prevent them.

That is the finding of Migration Watch UK (see paper attached), which comes just after the Home Secretary said there is no new target for illegal Channel crossings to become an “infrequent phenomenon”.

Asked by the Press Association if there was a new target date for the crossings to be reduced to an “infrequent phenomenon” – a reference to her pledge in 2019, the Home Secretary replied: “No. The fact of the matter is, I’ve said from day one this is a complicated issue. Illegal migration has been a feature of every single Government….When it comes to small boats in particular that is a route that has become far too viable for criminals.”

The number of crossings in the year so far – 2,400 – is four times the 600 or so that came during the first six months of 2019. More arrivals are understood to have occurred just this week (Visit our regularly-updated Tracking Station).

If that trend continues to the end of 2020, this would mean that the total arriving during the year would be four times the total of nearly 1,900 who arrived in 2019 (see Table 1 of attached paper), or nearly 7,600.

The figures for recorded arrivals by month cover only those detected. The actual number of people who have entered the UK by deliberately evading UK border controls is not known but is bound to make the actual number even higher.

Growing numbers seem to have been spurred by the government’s permissive approach, combining tough words with ineffectual action to stop them.

The failure to curtail this comes even as £114 million of taxpayers’ money was paid to France since 2015 to help stem the flow (see our recent paper).

If the government wants to deter the crossings, it should deliver the following:

Get the French to agree to the immediate return of all those detected attempting to cross the Channel illegally from France
Provide a major boost in funding for UK immigration enforcement – the National Audit Office says that this been cut by £47 million since 2015
Give Immigration Compliance and Enforcement Teams more support and determined leadership. Those at the sharp end must have their confidence restored.
Substantially increase the number of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers.

It goes without saying that our departure from the EU and the ending of free movement must also see us opting out of the EU’s inimical Dublin 3 arrangements, which have proved to be totally inadequate for the needs of the UK (see our 2019 paper and our recent paper for latest figures).

Commenting, Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:

“The Home Secretary said she wanted illegal Channel crossings to become an ‘infrequent phenomenon’. The opposite has happened with their frequency picking up pace. This cannot continue; it undermines confidence in the whole system and emboldens the traffickers. Urgent and effective action is essential if the public’s faith in our ability to control our border is not to be lost for good.”