Six dead and more than 50 rescued after boat carrying migrants sinks in Channel
The French must go “faster and further” to stop migrant small boats after being promised £480million from Britain, MPs have warned.
One Tory said: “They really need to pull their finger out and intervene at sea – they have no excuses. If there’s one thing that will help reduce the crossings, it’s making more interceptions on the water.”
MPs said the French border force now had “no excuses” not to act after being handed British taxpayers’ money.
The blunt warning comes as the number of migrants crossing to Britain has surged past 100,000 in the past five years, with most of the journeys originating in France.
In contrast, neighbouring Belgium has been much more successful in blocking crossings from its shores by turning back the boats.
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Six Afghan migrants died on Saturday when their overcrowded dinghy sank (Image: GETTY)
The French have succeeded in increasing the number of migrants being intercepted before they set sail after Rishi Sunak struck a deal with President Emmanuel Macron for Britain to pay £480million over the next three years in March.
It will fund more border officials, a new detention centre and boost French-UK cooperation.
Once the boats have left the beaches, however, the French maintain a policy of not intervening in the water unless a dinghy is in distress and the migrants are believed likely to cooperate.
It has resulted in French navy patrol vessels shadowing or escorting boats to British waters in the centre of the Channel because of migrants’ refusal to be rescued by the French and the risks if their officers tried to do so.
Belgium, which does intervene in the water, has seen a 90 percent reduction in small boat crossing attempts since 2018 thanks to the tougher tactics. Its police intercepted 944 migrants in 2022 compared with 12,800 in 2018.
It has also cracked down on people smuggling gangs by tracking migrant mobile phone data.
The number of migrants crossing to Britain has surged past 100,000 in the past five years (Image: GETTY)
Former Cabinet minister Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said: “There is no doubt the French authorities are preventing crossings but frankly they need to go faster and further than before.
“£500million is a lot of money. It’s not a massive area of coast they have to patrol – they certainly should be able to do it with that amount of money, plus what the French government is supposed to be spending.”
Concerns at the lack of French success in stopping boats have grown after six Afghan migrants died on Saturday when their overcrowded dinghy sank around four miles off the coast of France.
The former chief immigration officer of the UK Border Force Kevin Saunders told GB News he was “astonished” that the UK Coastguard responded first to an incident so close to France.
“We need the French on the Channel, working with the Brits to stop the boats coming across,” he added. “And until we do that, we’re going to have continual deaths.”
Dozens more migrants have reached Britain today on dinghies.
Migrants in Dunkirk about to cross the Channel (Image: GETTY)
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has said the Government was working with France and that 40 percent more boats had been stopped by the French authorities this year than last.
But ministers privately fear the UK could face a major spike in numbers after a increase in perilous voyages across the Mediterranean this summer.
It comes as a leaked government memo drafted for the senior civil servants in the Home Office revealed the Government is planning to use disused RAF bases and a prison to house migrants for three to five years, possibly longer.
According to figures published by the Home Office, French authorities prevented nearly 33,000 crossings last year. A total of 16,678 migrants have crossed the Channel in 356 boats so far this year.
Last year a record 45,755 people made the journey – 60 percent higher than 2021 when 28,526 migrants reached Britain.
The Government is planning to use disused RAF bases and a prison to house migrants (Image: GETTY)
The Home Office said: “Our priority is to stop the boats and our Small Boats Operational Command is working alongside our French partners and other agencies to disrupt the people smugglers.
“The Government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Albanian people smugglers have uncovered a new route to smuggle migrants from Santander in Spain to Portsmouth.
Gangs are offering the chance to travel by lorries on the route for £14,000 to avoid journeying by small boats and evading improved border security for those travelling via ferry and Eurostar from northern France.
The new route is being advertised on social media sites.
