Our recent Home Affairs Select Committee trip to Calais as part of our study on the Channel crossings problem was a real eye-opener. We met the French general in charge of the whole operation on the beaches, police, gendarmes, MPs, Border Force, French government officials and refugee organisations and migrants themselves.
There was hardly a conversation with the French which when it got tricky did not end in a traditional Gallic shoulder shrug and the phrase ‘tres difficile’ or ‘c’est tres complique!’ We saw plenty of impressive shiny new kit such as night vision drones and dune buggies largely paid for by British taxpayers.
Undoubtedly, the closer joint working between French and British agencies, helped by technology, has increased the number of migrant boats being intercepted before they reach the water. However the number of attempts has risen disproportionately as seized boats are replaced and new people trafficking gangs move in. As I have said all along the only way to stop this is for the French to arrest those paying criminal gangs to transport them to the UK either on the beaches or at sea and return them to the French coast after an expensive round trip.
That is where the ‘tres difficile’ bit inevitably comes in and the French police will only enter the water until thigh high, and if they intercept them on the beaches first they are simply allowed to disperse over the dunes. As to the suggestion that British Border Force could land those passengers picked up from boats in British territorial waters back in Calais rather than Dover, then that is ‘tres tres complique.’ And so the problem continues despite everything our Government has offered the French.
Interestingly we were told that when the Rwanda scheme was announced there was a surge in people inquiring about staying in France rather than risking the journey across the Channel which could result in a flight to Rwanda. That is of course yet to get off the ground, literally.
