Illegal Migrant Crossings Into Britain Are Far From 'Extraordinary'

BBC television has described yesterday’s ‘rescue’ of a pair of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel as “extraordinary.”

Having equipped themselves for the crossing, two Iranians called UK emergency services on their mobile telephones a mile from the British coast, and the coastguard was then scrambled.

Regional news reports point to incidents like Thursday’s being far from extraordinary, or even rare. Illegal sea crossings now impact ports nationwide.

With heightened security at usual routes, smaller ports such as Newhaven in Sussex, only 9 miles from Brighton, are fast becoming hubs for illegal entrants.

Local paper The Argus reports that some illegal migrants – usually described by open-borders activists as ‘desperate refugees’ – are paying “£12,000 for transport from Dunkirk to the UK in Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats.”

For those already prepared to risk drowning in the Mediterranean, Britain’s sea defences are clearly proving no obstacle: if the price is right.

Given the pattern established in attacks on Paris and Brussels, of illegals being recruited by home-grown jihadists, the news describing Newhaven as a particular “weak point” has stark consequences.

Following the revelation of a 30-strong gang of aspiring jihadists in the holiday resort, Brighton is the UK’s newest terror hotspot.

Last month Francois Hollande threatened Britain saying the mass migrant influx currently blighting France would be transferred to the UK if the country voted ‘Leave’ in its EU membership referendum on June 23.

Prime Minister David Cameron described President Hollande’s implication on March 3rd, that the island nation of Britain would be subject to similar migrant pressure as, “a giant David Icke-style conspiracy.”

With current reports of cliff-top caves, abandoned churches and châteaux along the Normandy coast being occupied by migrants preparing routes into Britain with criminal gangs, the scenario dismissed by the PM is clearly already underway.

“We’ve seen on the east coast evidence from Tilbury and Purfleet, up as far as Hull and Immingham. And on the south coast from Newhaven to Portsmouth,” the deputy director of border policing command at the National Crime Agency (NCA), Tom Dowdall, warned this week.

Days after ridiculing the French President, Britain’s PM chose to deploy the Royal Navy to prevent migrants entering Greece instead.

Mr Cameron’s glossy pro-EU document, which landed in British letterboxes this week, proudly boasted: “We control our own borders.” Nationwide local news reports present a different picture.

The ramping up of security around the Channel Tunnel in France has merely increased migrant ingenuity, and an NCA taskforce has been created to try and mitigate the results.

Local government officials in Portsmouth have urged the government to cease being “complacent and remain on alert concerning organised immigration crime,” reports The News.

Humber ports, like Hull, are often “seen as more or better opportunities for some migrants,” said Freight Transport Association spokesperson Julie Maddox.

“Organised people trafficking should now be a key focus for both the French and UK governments,” she continued, speaking to local radio station KCFM.

“Particularly secure parking facilities are needed inland to prevent migrants who are boarding trucks before they reach the ports.”

The combined impact of the invasion of truck trailers, and independent sea crossings, points to why the growing migrant influx into Britain is taking place.

Despite being in a perpetual state-of-emergency since the last jihadist attacks on Paris, in northern France the rule of law is essentially collapsing. Rather than directing her anger at local police failures, the Mayor of Calais, has repeatedly blamed Britain’s “cushy benefits system” for the migrant chaos.

With some willing to pay up to £13,500 for the chance, a better life in Britain is clearly attractive to countless millions whether benefits are factored into the equation or not.

George Igler, a political analyst based in the City of London, is the Director of the Discourse Institute.