The Commission’s new repatriation plan comes as support for national-conservative parties increases—a trend that, for the moment, shows no sign of abating.
Migration Watch Chairman Alp Mehmet said the government would not admit why the number will rise again—because “very few illegal arrivals are ever returned or removed.”
So far, 44,000 Channel asylum seekers have arrived in Britain this year. Unless the situation is addressed, with a generous welfare state and a low chance of being deported, more tragedies can be expected.
The worst fears raised by members of Les Républicains or the Rassemblement National are fully justified: the state has not been able to deal properly with these 234 migrants, most of whom have disappeared into thin air.
The incident shines a bright light—for the umpteenth time—on the French government’s inability execute deportation orders, and the consequences that it has.
This year alone, more than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel to southern Britain using small boats, up from 28,526 last year—the highest number since these figures began to be collected in 2018.
The tug-of-war over the Ocean Viking proves that the French government is at loggerheads with the new Italian government and that the atmosphere is not one of courteous discussion or compromise.
