Brexit leader Nigel Farage said that Home Secretary Priti Patel prefers to “pretend” the migrant crisis in the English Channel is not happening as another 49 illegal boat migrants have been brought ashore in Britain since Friday.
Despite rough weather conditions in the English Channel, the migrant boats continued to pour in, with 44 migrants arriving on Friday and an additional five making the perilous journey on Saturday.
French authorities were able to stop an additional 147 migrants from entering British territorial waters during the same time span, according to the Daily Mail.
Releasing footage of migrants being taken ashore by the Border Force, Nigel Farage said on Saturday: “Many more boats escorted into Dover yesterday, there were even some beach landings at Dungeness. The same goes for this morning.”
“But Priti Patel wants to pretend this isn’t happening because she did another tough speech,” the Brexiteer added.
Mr Farage has long been critical of the home secretary’s performance in handling the migrant crisis in the Channel, accusing her of being all talk and no action.
Last month, the home secretary announced a series of proposed reforms to Britain’s “broken” asylum system, including preventing migrants who arrive illegally from gaining UK citizenship or applying for leave to remain status.
Patel also proposed that migrants who travelled through safe countries, such as France, before entering the United Kingdom be subject to “boomerang” deportation in as little as 24 hours.
However, it is unclear how exactly the government would be able to enact such a reform, as it has so far failed to reach an agreement with the EU on the return of illegal aliens and failed asylum seekers. The British government has refused to adopt a unilateral turn ‘back the boats’ approach, as well.
Following Patel’s announcement, Farage said that “Nothing is going to change,” stating that the proposed reforms merely represented more “tough talk” from the home secretary but lacked the teeth to stop the crisis.
According to an analysis conducted by The Telegraph, the UK is on pace to see a record 20,000 illegal boat migrants being brought ashore this year, more than double the record numbers seen last year, which stood at around 8,500.
Currently, over 1,400 migrants have reached Britain by crossing the English Channel in small rubber boats from France, more than doubling the landings during the same time period last year.
The latest crossings come as the international policing agency Interpol announced that it has arrested 195 smugglers and rescued around 500 people, including children, in a massive human trafficking bust carried out earlier this month.
The agency said that the operation “once again demonstrated how closely linked migrant smuggling and human trafficking are particularly in a global health crisis when the most vulnerable are desperate to escape hardship, and the criminal networks are just keen to turn a profit”.
One case highlighted by Interpol concerned a 15-year old girl from the Congo who sought “help” from people smugglers to escape a forced marriage. The girl was subjected to sexual abuse by the human traffickers on her journey before being rescued in Tunisia.
The Secretary-General of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, said: “These victims could not simply walk away from the horrific situation they found themselves in and the suffering they endured.
“This is why Interpol’s work does not stop here. We will continue to help countries untangle sensitive and complex cases, which, will undoubtedly generate more arrests in the months to come.”
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