I’ve had a lot of people write to me and ask for my opinion on the recent migrant crossings. It is by nature an incredibly complex situation and not one that can be easily answered in a sentence or a paragraph, so I’ve written the following to try and address the issue. I hope you find it interesting and that it addresses any questions you may have.
Five years ago, I first visited Calais with the Home Affairs Select Committee and saw the work that was going on to ‘fortify’ the area around the Channel Tunnel and to scan freight vehicle coming into the UK. We spoke to migrants in the camps around the town aiming to get across the Channel; we were shown round by the French police and UK Border Force officials and met the Mayor of Calais.
Three things struck us. Firstly, a huge investment had gone into sealing off the entry to the Tunnel and the security measures to detect stowaways. Lorries were subject to X-Ray scans, sniffer dogs and detection equipment that could sense human heart beats and CO2 emissions.
Secondly, many of the people we spoke to were from a multitude of countries, and many were professional middle classes who had paid a lot of money to people traffickers to get them to Calais. Many had closer links with France than the UK, but they were under the impression that their chances would be better in the UK than staying in another safe country like France.
Thirdly, we heard that when migrants were caught accessing the Tunnel the French police would bundle them into a police van, drive them a couple of miles out of town and release them. Surprise surprise they were back the following night trying to get into the Tunnel again. They only needed to get lucky once.
There is the nub of the problem. The French have never really taken this problem seriously and think the solution is to make their problem our problem. I heard as much when I debated a French MP on radio earlier this week when he said that we should be making it easier for the migrants to access the UK to make asylum claims here, almost to the extent of laying on ferries for them. I did well to keep my cool.
Under the terms of EU Dublin protocols, it is the responsibility of the EU country where a migrant first lands to take responsibility for processing the asylum applications and decide where that person ends up. The entry points have mostly been Greece and Italy after dangerous crossings in the Aegean and Mediterranean. The problem is that those countries have been overwhelmed by the numbers, the migrants are not hanging around and instead trying to make their own way to countries of choice like the UK and Sweden. The EU’s own system is simply still not working and it is certainly not working for the UK even while we are covered by EU regulations until the end of the transition period.
So we now have a ‘perfect storm’ of this surge in the number of migrants risking their lives to cross the busiest shipping lane in the world and funding the big crime networks that are the people trafficking gangs charging typically £4000 a go. It has been caused by the tighter security around the ferry and Tunnel routes, the reduced freight traffic during the pandemic and now of course the calm weather conditions. Above all it is because word has got out that the chances of getting over have risen considerably and that can only act as a magnet for yet more people to try. In 2018 it is estimated that around 500 migrants attempted this route. That figure was exceeded in just last weekend alone and those are the ones we know about.
To be fair to the Government it has not been down to lack of trying to deal with this problem. The Home Office has spent a considerable amount of British taxpayer’s money to send police and immigration officials to France to work with their French counterparts and for the use of drones and all sort of other technology.
Intelligence sharing has resulted in 21 people traffickers being prosecuted so far this year and the French will claim that they have prevented half of all attempts by boats to get in the water. The clampdown has meant that it is actually quite difficult to buy a dinghy around Calais but now people traffickers are either stealing them or bringing them across from Germany. In addition the Home Office have deported over 700 migrants who have come to Britain this way in the last few months Despite this limited success, too many boats are still succeeding in getting into the water, too many criminals are still at large profiting from this trade in human misery and the 700 returned means thousands are still in the UK in most cases without a reasonable claim to be here in the long term.
The real issue is that once a boat is in the water, in most cases the French authorities will not physically intercept it and take the passengers back to France. They claim that maritime law and health and safety considerations prevent them from doing so. They will offer to take passengers on board but if refused as usually happens they will shadow the dinghies until in British waters unless they are at risk of sinking and then appeal for help. This is despite the fact that they know those aboard are committing an offence by trying to enter the UK illegally, that they have funded criminal enterprises to help them and could of course include terrorists as well. Set aside that the current protocols around spreading Coronavirus.
Once in British waters the dinghies will either be picked up by Border Force, the coastguard or other agencies and some of course make it all the way to British land. When in the custody of Border Force, they have no choice but to take them to the UK where they invariably apply for asylum and that whole process can drag on for months and years. There is then a particular problem with migrants from some countries particularly Iran, where the Iran Government will refuse to take them back and will not allow them off a plane if we fly them back to Tehran. We are then faced with housing them permanently even though they may have no basis on which to be in the UK and given the strong links between France and Iran would be more at home in French territory.
So, I absolutely share the anger of my constituents and many people in this country that the UK is being forced to pick up, accommodate and give safe haven to an increasing number of migrants who have crossed in to the UK illegally from another safe country and have little or no claim to settle here. Other countries outside the EU have not given the appearance of being such a ‘soft touch’ when faced with similar challenges.
It is easy to write these concerns off as being anti-migrant or lacking compassion. However, if you look at the facts the UK has a proud record of offering generous support and refuge for genuine refugees seeking a safe haven. Since 2015 under the Syrian Vulnerable People’s Resettlement Scheme alone, we have given a home to 20,000 of some of the most vulnerable Syrian children and families fleeing the disaster in that war-torn country. Under the so-called Dubs Scheme we have taken in 480 unaccompanied children and we are fully signed up to the family reunification scheme which has brought together surviving members of a family often torn apart escaping war zones.
The UK taxpayer has also given more than £2.5bn now to support refugees in camps around Syria, which is virtually more than the whole of the EU put together. These include camps such as the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan housing over 80,000 Syrian refugees which I have visited with Lord Dubs. We can all take pride in the generous work Brits are doing there to help so many vulnerable people.
So, we will continue to do our bit for genuine refugees and indeed I have argued in Parliament recently that we could be expanding schemes such as the Family Reunification Scheme. But those who say we should be automatically taking in more of the migrants coming across the Chanel are putting all that work at risk. They are effectively saying that anyone who has the money to pay a people trafficker to get into a boat and cross into the UK illegally should be able to queue jump ahead of those genuine refugees who are applying through the legitimate and fair routes often from countries much more dangerous than France. I am afraid that in too many cases those coming into the UK are economic migrants not genuine refugees at risk in their own countries so why should they be able to queue jump?
So what is the solution? Clearly the French, with UK support, need to step up activity to disrupt the people trafficker gangs and disrupt all attempts to get in the water in the first place, and of course they need to follow the clear procedures that are supposed to be operating across the EU already.
The Home Secretary has already deployed more Royal Navy resource in the Channel but there is a limit to how you deter boats heading towards the UK without unwittingly giving rise to a tragedy where passengers drown. Frankly it is a miracle that more people have not lost their lives already given the flimsiness of the crafts used and business of the route they take.
But this is only part of the answer and an increasingly failing one. The real solution is to acknowledge that boats can be intercepted in French waters and in all cases the passengers will be taken back to French land. Added to this, those migrants picked up in British waters should be taken straight back to France if that is where they started their journey. I am sure Border Force, the Royal Navy or the coastguard would be happy to provide a free and safe ride.
If that were to happen the message would soon get out that anyone paying £4000 to people traffickers are likely be paying for a very hazardous and very expensive round trip that will get you precisely nowhere. The incentive to try would be hugely diminished and the trade for the people traffickers would quickly dry up. But of course, so far, the French are not playing ball. That is a short-sighted policy because the reason so many migrants head for Calais is because they think that is the best route into the UK and recently, they have been right. If that route is cut off there is less reason for them to come into France in the first place so the problem for the French diminishes too.
I very much hope that the French will see that it is in their mutual interests to turn the boats around and cooperate effectively with the UK. It is in the interests of those migrants risking their lives not to be ‘lured’ to the French coast in this miserable way; it is in the interests of the authorities fighting the serious organised crime that people trafficking has become; and above all it is in the interests of the genuine asylum seeking refugees to whom we will continue to offer a safe haven without them being trampled only those who can afford to pay to jump the queue. It is a win win win situation if only the French would stop saying non non non.
