UK to hand France £54m extra cash in new deal to help them stop migrants

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Priti Patel last night agreed to give France another £54million to stop the growing number of migrants crossing the Channel.

The Home Secretary signed the pledge after chaotic scenes emerged of a French navy vessel apparently ushering an overcrowded dinghy into British waters early yesterday.

It came as the number of people to have made the perilous journey this year hit 8,452 – surpassing the figure for the whole of 2020.

A record daily total of 430 landed in the UK after setting off from France in small boats on Monday – and 287 more arrived yesterday.

Miss Patel’s controversial agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin will see policing numbers along the French coast more than double to 200 to cover a wider area.

There will also be an increased use of aerial surveillance, including drones. The two countries agreed to draw up a long-term plan for a ‘smart border’ using technology to identify where crossings are being attempted.

But the deal failed to impress critics, who accuse the French authorities of not doing enough to stop small boats leaving their territorial waters. 

It comes as:

• Union officials said Border Force staff are ‘stretched’ and ‘working excessive hours in unsuitable conditions’; 
• Ex-prime minister Theresa May sounded warnings over the prospect of the UK sending asylum seekers to Australia-style offshore processing centres;
• Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O’Mahoney said ‘unacceptable’ rise in small boat crossings was caused by ‘surge in illegal migration across Europe’;
• Detention Action charity said the Government’s ‘anti-refugee Bill’ is ‘political theatre that doesn’t even pretend to deal with the issue or make our system, safe, fair or efficient’.

There were extraordinary scenes in Kent earlier today that showed the scale of the issue. With calm seas on one of the hottest days of the year, traffickers took their opportunity to send scores of migrants to the UK.

Dungeness was at the centre of the rush as wave upon wave arrived in boats on its pebbled beaches.

Many were in coats and jeans. Some were barefoot. But all those who were unmasked wore broad smiles. One man was dressed in a jacket that proclaimed ‘Live or Die’.

Groups started arriving at Dungeness from 9.30am. A further 12 migrants – mainly men – were filmed successfully landing their rigid hulled inflatable boat at 11.15am.

The men said they had paid £3,000 each for the ten-hour crossing.

The agreement comes as the Ms Patel’s New Plan for Immigration is debated in Parliament this week. The government’s Nationality and Borders Bill will crack down ‘on illegal entry and the criminality associated with it, rather than allowing people to undertake dangerous journeys to the UK as their preferred destination’.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘The British people have simply had enough of illegal migration and the exploitation of migrants by criminal gangs.

‘Illegal immigration is driven by serious organised criminals and people smugglers. The public are rightly angry that small boats are arriving on our shores, facilitated by appalling criminal gangs who profit from human misery and put lives at risk.

‘The Government is addressing the challenge of illegal migration for the first time in over two decades through comprehensive reform of our asylum system which will enable us to going after the gangs exploiting people, deter illegal entry into the UK, introduce new and tougher criminal offences for those attempting to enter the UK illegally and strengthen our ability to remove those with no legal right to be in the UK.’

With UK support last year, France doubled the number of officers deployed daily on French beaches, improved intelligence sharing and purchased more cutting-edge technology.

This resulted in France preventing twice as many crossings so far this year than in the same period in 2020.

However, as French interceptions increased, the Home Office said that organised criminal gangs have changed their tactics, moving further up the French coast, and forcing migrants to take even longer, riskier journeys.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Thanks to support from the UK, the French will be able to respond by posting more security forces further up the coast, installing and utilising the latest surveillance equipment throughout northern France.’

Labour dismissed the latest move as ‘empty promises’, saying the Tories are ‘letting down victims and allowing criminals to continue their evil trade’.

Charities branded the measures inhumane, while refugee rights campaigner Lord Dubs said Miss Patel’s plans were a ‘disservice to this country’s history’.

Tom Hunt, Tory MP for Ipswich, said: ‘We need to take control of this issue for ourselves and we shouldn’t be dependent on the French to sort it out for us. It is fair enough to work with the French but we should not be surprised if they continue to fall short.’

Miss Patel said last night: ‘Illegal immigration is driven by serious organised criminals and people smugglers.

‘The public are rightly angry that small boats are arriving on our shores, facilitated by appalling criminal gangs who profit from human misery and put lives at risk.’

Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: ‘With today’s record this Government loses all credibility in managing a safe and fair asylum system.

‘Priti Patel can re-announce enhanced police cooperation with the French all day, every day, but until there is a political renegotiation to allow refugees safe passage to claim asylum at the U.K. border in France, this relatively small number of desperate people will continue risking everything for a shot at our protection.

‘Ministers should stop playing fantasy politics and step up to protect lives instead.’

Meanwhile, Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive at Refugee Action, said the growing number of crossings ‘shows the Government’s get-tough-quick schemes do not work’.

He added: ‘Criminal smugglers prey on refugees who have little choice than to put risk their lives in rickety boats because Ministers refuse to create more routes to reach safety here.

‘And the Government’s cruel anti-refugee Bill will do little to stop the boats. It is unworkable, unlawful and will end up an expensive disaster that criminalises people who are simply asking for our help.’ 

‘None of us can swim’: Kuwaiti girl, 12, whose family paid £8,000 to people smugglers for perilous crossing from Calais is among hundreds more arriving today as 2021 total so far eclipses the whole of 2020

ByJack Wrightand James Fielding For Mailonline 

A 12-year-old Kuwaiti girl whose family paid people-smugglers £8,000 to make the treacherous journey from Calais to England is among an ongoing surge of migrants crossing the Channel today after a French warship escorted a dinghy containing 13 people into British waters. 

Border Force intercepted what is believed to be the first boat of migrants taking advantage of the flat seas and clear skies and brought its occupants into Dover Marina at around 10am. Around 20 people were seen being escorted up the gangway by Immigration Enforcement officers.

A further 12 migrants – mainly men from Iran and North and Eastern Africa – were filmed landing their orange rigid hulled inflatable boat on the pebbles at Dungeness, Kent at 11.15am.

It comes after more than 430 migrants sailed across the Channel yesterday in a new single-day record. Today it was revealed 8,452 people have crossed to the UK on board small boats so far this year, eclipsing the total annual figure of 8,417 reached in 2020. 

Sky News showed aerial shots of the men getting out and sitting on the pebble beach while some washed their feet in the water as a rubber ring brought as a makeshift safety aid floated up shore. One migrant told photographers on the beach the group had paid £3,000 each for the 10 hour crossing, while another was seen wearing a denim jacket with the slogan ‘live or die’ emblazoned on the back. 

Kent Police found a three-inch Stanley blade discarded by a life vest on the floor, believed to have been carried by one of the men. As they prepared to board a coach to Dover, the migrants emptied their possessions into a plastic bag and were interviewed by officers to know how old they were and where they had come from. 

Today a family-of-six from Kuwait – including children aged 12, 11, seven and one just 20-months old – told MailOnline how they paid people-smugglers thousands of pounds to travel from France to England. 

As they were escorted to Dungeness lifeboat station after being brought ashore by Border Force, police and RNLI crews, the father said: ‘There are six of us, four children. We have come from Kuwait originally but have been in France for the last month. We paid £8000 to come here.’

His 12-year-old daughter added: ‘None of us can swim but everyone on the boat had lifejackets.’ 

Natalie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover, slammed the people-smugglers and migrants taking advantage of the flat seas. She told MailOnline: ‘Another day where small boats are brazenly crossing the English Channel and motoring onto our beaches.

‘That’s why I am backing the new powers being debated in Parliament to turn boats around and action to stop small boats leaving France in the first place.

‘Only when migrants and traffickers alike know that they will not succeed in breaking into Britain will the small boats crisis come to an end.’ 

Speaking on Times Radio, Immigration Minister Chris Philp called yesterday the ‘worst day ever’ for crossings and said it is ‘vital’ that action is taken. He said Ms Patel is close to reaching an agreement with France to boost co-operation and increase police patrols on French beaches.

Mr Philp also pledged that the controversial Nationality and Borders Bill going through Parliament ‘closes some loopholes’ and will reform the asylum system.

However, campaigners claim the Bill is inhumane and unworkable because it would make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally without permission to be here and could lead to four years’ imprisonment.

The boat carrying the family from Kuwait was one of three to land in Dungeness today. The first crossing had 30 men on board and the second had 13 people.

On the third boat – among the 42 migrants – were five children and six women. The migrants were from the Middle East and Africa. They were all given water upon arrival before being bussed to immigration centres. None needed hospital appointments.

One couple had made the journey from Syria via France. The man, who gave his name as Nada, said: ‘We are from Damascus but we want to be in England. I love England – it is the perfect country!’

Other migrants said they were from Kurdistan and Eritrea. Watching the migrants come ashore were locals Suzanne Wells and Jane Gane.

Suzanne, 61, said: ‘I’ve been living here for 25-years and this is the busiest it’s been for migrants coming to the UK. There were a lot of crossings last year but already I think the first seven months of 2021 have exceeded 2020’s total or at least must be close to topping it.

‘Yesterday there were reports that some boats were coming that had 70 and 50 people on board. At least three large coaches full of migrants passed me at lunchtime yesterday.’

Jane, 67, added: ‘I feel sorry for them, especially if they are genuinely escaping hardship or persecution. But there are some who are here just for economic reasons.’

A French warship escorted a group of 13 migrants crammed into a small boat into British waters before handing them over to a baffled news crew this morning, as hundreds are expected to cross today after more than 430 people landed in the UK yesterday in a single-day record. 

Good Morning Britain journalist Pip Tomson told ITV viewers that the dinghy, which is made for just six passengers, was escorted by a French warship to the border before it left, apparently thinking that the team of reporters would then escort the migrants back to the UK.

Ms Tomson said GMB alerted Border Force to the small boat, but agreed to ‘observe’ the migrants because UK officials were so busy handling other crossings this morning. Around 20 minutes later, a Border Force jet-ski was filmed escorting the dinghy to the English coastline. 

Appearing on GMB this morning, Business Minister Paul Scully said the migrants were escaping war-torn countries and said ‘people should be claiming asylum in the first safe port’ they reach.

France struck a deal with the UK in November to tackle illegal Channel crossings but has so far resisted the idea of having dinghies sent back to its northern beaches.  

In March, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced plans to overhaul Britain’s immigration regime by giving border guards patrolling the Channel greater powers to turn back migrant boats. The crackdown will be dependent on France and other countries accepting the return of migrants.

A police source told MailOnline: ‘The men were intercepted by the RNLI and brought to the lifeboat station where they were given water. There were a total of 30 young men, from Iran and Northern and Eastern Africa who had set off overnight from the French coast.

‘All of them are fairly healthy and nobody required hospital treatment. Officers found a Stanley knife blade which had had the base removed and was covered in silver duct tape. The blade is thought to have been discarded by one of the migrants as they came ashore before being searched by police.

‘The migrants will be taken to an immigration centre and be given food once on the coach. We are expecting another craft to land less than a mile away and that one, we believe, has 40-persons on board.’

Dr Ben Greening, Executive Director of Migration Watch UK, told MailOnline: ‘This was another daily record and we are going to see that surpassed time and time again going forward unless the Government gets serious. 

‘Illegal crossings so far this year are now nearly 11 times the number recorded by this point in 2019, just before the Home Secretary promised they would become ‘infrequent’. This is not good enough and the public are fed up to the teeth with this debacle.’ 

As the number of people crossing in small boats rises, the number coming over to Britain in lorries or train containers through the Channel Tunnel has declined following high-profile incidents in which migrants smuggled onto lorries and containers have died en route. 

Speaking to MailOnline today, furious union officials said that Border Force staff are ‘working excessive hours in unsuitable conditions’ as officials struggle to keep a handle on the numbers of migrants who are intercepted in the Channel and who need processing on land.

‘We need a mechanism allowing refugees arriving at the UK border in France to be given safe passage, and until we have it, all else is noise and distraction.’

Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O’Mahoney said today: ‘There is an unacceptable rise in dangerous small boat crossings across the Channel because of a surge in illegal migration across Europe.

‘People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives making these dangerous crossing. We are continuing to pursue the criminals behind these illegal crossings.

‘Police patrols on French beaches and enhanced intelligence sharing between our security and law enforcement agencies has helped to prevent crossings through a combination of inland and sea patrols.

‘The Government continues to undertake substantial steps to tackle the unacceptable problem of illegal migration through the Nationality and Borders Bill which will protect lives and break this cycle of illegal crossings. The Government is also continuing to return those with no legal right to remain in the UK.’  

In Dungeness in Kent, around 50 people were seen landing on a beach after crossing aboard in a single dinghy. Some raised their hands in celebration as they stood on the beach, while others sat down on the shingle shoreline amid 75F sunshine.

The large dinghy is believed to have left northern France or Belgium earlier on Monday before crossing the dangerous 21-mile Dover Strait. 

The vessel had been watched by the RNLI as it got closer and closer to the coast before eventually landing on the beach at around 1pm. Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk, and some people had to be supported as they walked on to the beach. 

A witness told the Sun that within five minutes a police car had arrived but all of the migrants had already disappeared. She added that two men, who appeared to be British, arrived with snacks and flasks of coffee before clearing discarded lifejackets.  

A large inflatable was pictured on the beach at Dungeness in Kent where 88 people are said to have landed, according to independent monitors posting on social media. 

Two coaches were pictured at the pebble beach as the group were detained by Border Force officers. It came after 241 people arrived in the UK on Sunday on board eight boats, as 2021 continues to see rising numbers of crossings.   

Some people raised their hands in the air in apparent celebration at having completed the dangerous journey, while others had to be supported as they walked on to the beach.  

Numbers of crossings have shot up in recent years, with last year’s total more than quadrupling the number of arrivals in 2019. Despite this, the UK continues to see far fewer boat arrivals and asylum claims than many of its European counterparts.

At least 44,230 people have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea so far this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Also, despite the sharp rise in small boats arrivals on the south coast, asylum applications in the UK fell in 2020 to 29,456. This was significantly lower than the 93,475 asylum applications made in France and the 121,955 made in Germany. 

Her remarks came as MPs considered the Nationality and Borders Bill, which includes clauses to allow the UK to be able to send asylum seekers to a ‘safe third country’ and to submit claims at a ‘designated place’ determined by the Secretary of State. 

Lucy Moreton of the Immigration Services Union said: ‘To say Border Force are stretched is an understatement. Staff are working excessive hours in unsuitable conditions and at the moment in extreme heat. Not only are those working at sea seriously over capacity so are those on land. 

‘From the Immigration Enforcement Officers who are tasked with screening and processing on arrival, to asylum caseworkers who have a 450 per cent increase in workload and the local authorities who have to find accommodation, support etc, in due course this pressure will also find its way through to the legal system as refused cases go through appeal. 

‘Although we do see families with children the majority of migrants continue to be young men. Many have asylum applications already refused elsewhere in Europe.’ MailOnline has contacted the Home Office for further information. 

Plans for sweeping reforms of the asylum system, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by critics and campaigners, were debated again in Parliament yesterday. Theresa May sounded warnings over the prospect of the UK sending asylum seekers to Australia-style offshore processing centres. 

The former prime minister said she considered the idea when home secretary but rejected the option due to ‘practical concerns’.  

Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: ‘The Home Office’s anti-refugee Bill is political theatre that doesn’t even pretend to deal with the issue or make our system, safe, fair or efficient. 

Among the arrivals were women and children, some too young to walk. More people are believed to have attempted the cross to the UK on Monday, with Border Force and French warships active in the English Channel. 

French authorities intercepted an additional seven boats carrying 129 migrants – while also preventing a further 15 people from entering the water. 

It comes as the Borders Bill is set to be debated in Parliament. The legislation looks to deter illegal entry and crackdown on people smuggling gangs by making it a criminal offence for migrants to attempt to enter the UK without valid entry clearance.

Home Secretary Priti Patel’s crackdown comes after June saw more migrants cross the Channel by small boat than in any month ever before.