While close to 30,000 migrants crossed the Channel to arrive illegally in England last year, none of the government-owned cutters and patrol vessels were used to deal with the evermore embarrassing crisis.
Home Office officials have “quietly” revealed that the five cutters and six coastal patrol vessels were used a grand total of zero times in 2023. Incidents were instead dealt with using commercial transfer vessels and lifeboats. The government department said in a statement that larger vessels, such as cutters, “are not suitable for rescue and recovery operations.” So it is spending millions of pounds on a fleet of private catamarans instead.
These watercraft are being chartered at the cost of £36 million (€42 million) per year and are usually used to service offshore wind farms. The Daily Telegraph reports that these are now “the UK’s only Channel patrols.”
More than 1,500 migrants have already crossed the Channel this year to arrive in Britain, where they are unlikely to possess any fear of deportation. Officials reckon that a record 50,000 crossings could take place through the whole of 2024.
The Channel is, however, just one route used to enter the UK illegally. Smugglers have long been encouraging migrants to hide in the back of lorries going to the southern English coastal port of Portsmouth.
Earlier this month, a group of young pupils were shocked to find two suspected migrants hiding in the luggage compartment of their coach after returning from a school trip to France. Parents waiting to pick up their children reportedly stopped one of the migrants from running away, and one child’s luggage was left covered in urine. According to The Daily Mail, “Police were called to the incident but no arrests have been made.”
In its latest effort to deter illegal migration, the government will join other Western leaders in making use of TikTok by paying celebrities on the social media app to make short videos urging against Channel crossings. Even the Home Office admits this is likely to prompt a “surge of advertising” by smugglers to “promote the UK as a destination.”
