The smugglers’ network bringing migrants illegally to the UK has altered its methods, prompting the UK government on Tuesday, June 17th, to describe the situation as “deteriorating.”
Previously, limited police action on Northern French beaches prompted the smugglers to launch their increasingly large ‘small boats’ from inland waterways further and further away from the main shore. Now, criminals are sending ‘taxi’ boats along the coastline to pick up prospective migrants to the UK who wade out to sea before transferring them to main boats ready to make the perilous journey to the Kent coast in England. Alternatively, the ‘taxi boats’ are then used directly in Channel crossings once full.
This poses a problem for French police, who operationally avoid using tear gas and batons in the water, citing the danger of women and children drowning or being crushed inside the boats. This, coupled with increasing violence between Kurdish gangsters and African migrants trying to storm the boats without paying for passage, has prompted law enforcement officials to consider revising their procedures.
A separate landmark figure—40,000 Channel crossings since PM Keir Starmer took office—led Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice to label the government ‘incompetent muppets.’
