French and British border authorities intercepted 375 illegal aliens in 16 boats attempting to cross the English Channel from France to England over Tuesday night to Wednesday, the highest number of daily attempts this year.
Authorities in France managed to stop seven boats containing a combined 166 migrants trying to make the illegal journey.
UK Border Force, meanwhile, picked up 209 migrants on nine boats that had passed into British waters, according to KentOnline, making Wednesday a record for the highest number of illegals brought ashore in one day this year.
The Times also reports that Wednesday’s 209 illegals brought ashore pushes this year’s total to over 2,000, nearly three times as many as had arrived in this same period last year.
2020 was a record year for illegal boat migration, with 8,420 aliens making it to England, more than four times the year before. Analysis conducted by the Daily Telegraph at the beginning of the month projected that 2021 could be another record year, with 20,000 illegals predicted to cross the English Channel, with other reports suggesting as many as 25,000.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), Britain’s equivalent of the FBI, warned the maritime industry to be on the lookout for a suspicious demand in small boats as the numbers of illegal crossings increases.
The arrivals keep increasing, despite Home Secretary Priti Patel’s new immigration plans which would automatically deny migrants refugee status if they arrived in the country illegally. While the Home Office would attempt to return them to the last safe country through which migrants travelled, as The Guardian noted, few EU countries are willing to cooperate.
Figures released from the Home Office earlier this month revealed that on average, only 71 out of 17,000, or 0.4 per cent, of illegal aliens picked up by Border Force have faced prosecution since 2016/17.
It has also been found that smugglers are taking advantage of poorer migrants, using them as decoys in order for their “premium” clients to have a better chance of arriving in the UK.
A source close to an NCA operation said that poor migrants paying less to be smuggled across the English Channel are sometimes put in defective boats to divert the attention of British and French border and coastguard agents.
The source described it terms similar to all-inclusive holiday deals, saying: “You get graduations of packages that are offered by the traffickers — you’ll get your criminal equivalent of business class. Then they’ll use people with less money as decoys when they do the big surges so they get some boats through regardless.”
Prices range from £200 to up to £5,000 for the premium service.
There are believed to be some 100 people-smuggling gangs running routes to the UK. This week, Greek authorities arrested a resident from Egypt on suspicion of spying on military bases and people smuggling. His arrest was part of a wider investigation into a multinational “VIP”-service people-smuggling gang, which bring migrants from countries such as Syria into Europe via the Greek islands and onto the Greek mainland.
The network involves a range of nationalities, including Greeks, Moroccans, a Lebanese national, a Moroccan who was caught bringing illegals into Greek waters in a boat, a Turk who liaises with people smugglers in Turkey, and a Palestinian who produces fake passports. Others, including the recently-arrested Egyptian, are suspected of being involved in meeting the migrants on the shore, sheltering them, and taking them to airports before they head off to Athens and onwards to wealthy and generous northern Europe.
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