Labour are tinkering at the edges with their Border Command - Kevin Saunders
Sir Keir Starmer has been under pressure to tackle immigration
PA
Kevin Saunders is Former Chief Immigration Officer for Calais and Dunkerque
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The deaths in the Channel this week once again highlight that despite a change of government in the UK the problem with illegal migration still exists.
The Labour government are tinkering at the edges of the problem with its so called “new” security command, and its pledge to go after the smuggling gangs.
The real problem which the French authorities are always keen to point out is that the UK is just too attractive and generous to people who have basically broken the law and endangered not only their own lives but the lives of the people who go out on the Channel to rescue them.
An example of this is the government spent £2.3m on mobile phone SIM cards for migrants. The fact that the government are providing hotels, weekly allowances, free medical and dental care are also big draws.
One of the big draws for families is free education and there are no year 7 places in schools in the SE.
To stop the boats you have to stop the pull factor to the UK. This is only going to get more difficult as European governments swing to the right.
We have seen Italy, Poland, Hungary, Germany and now Sweden all adopting a must less welcoming attitude towards migrants.
In fact, Hungary have refused to allow any migration at all, and are being fined by the EU. The UK needs a big deterrent which was Rwanda but that has gone.
So the UK will be under more pressure as people seek to come here. The UK would like to see the French authorities do more to stop the boats. In particular the UK would like the French authorities to deploy vessels on to the Channel to stop boats leaving French waters.
This the French flatly refused to do this saying it is contrary to “the law of the sea”.
The French argue they can only interfere with a migrant boat if the migrants ask for help as the boat is in distress. This is why you often see French vessels escorting migrant boats to the centre point of the Channel.
The French authorities are doing more on the beaches and claim they are stopping about 46% of boats leaving. This is one reason why the smugglers are using larger boats.
The French have had some success in combating people smuggling gangs. Some 30 gangs have been disrupted this year.
Also it is impossible to buy a vessel the smugglers use in France or Belgium. The boats are coming from China, via Germany.
The boats are now inflated in rivers and canals and floated round to the beaches for the migrants to board. This is done to limit the time the French police have to intercept the boats.
The government say they will speed up asylum applications and remove failed asylum seekers.
The trouble is most people crossing the Channel destroy their documents thus arriving unable to establish nationality and identity.
They give false names and dates of birth. Their asylum claim will be difficult to prove, but since they have no documentation they cannot be removed so they get Humanitarian Protection which is similar to asylum.
Thus they have achieved their goal, the next stage is to bring their families.
The government often release figures on removals. However these figures do not relate to asylum seekers, but to foreign prisoners, and people who have over stayed their visas.
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