Brexit leader Nigel Farage pronounced that Britain’s national “humiliation continues”, as migrants have reportedly now taken to using jet skis to cross the English Channel from the beaches of France.
The boat migrant crisis in the English Channel continued this week, with dozens more illegals being brought ashore in England.
Members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute were even seen towing a jet-ski — believed to have been used in a migrant crossing — ashore on the coast of Dungeness, according to a report from the Press Association.
The coastguard confirmed to the news wire agency that it had coordinated a search and rescue operation involving a helicopter and lifeboat off the coast of Kent on Monday.
Brexit’s Nigel Farage shared a picture of a beached jet ski, which he said was picked up by the Kent branch of the RNLI.
“They’re even coming on Jet Skis now!” Farage exclaimed, lamenting that Britain’s “humiliation continues”.
So far this year, over 23,500 illegals have crossed the Channel from France, with a record 1,185 crossing on last Thursday, alone.
The latest crossings come as Home Secretary Priti Patel was set to meet with her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin to impress the UK’s desire that France intercepts every migrant boat leaving their shores after the first instalment of Britain’s £54 million handout has been forked over to the French.
In October, the Home Secretary said that she had authorised the Border Force and other immigration authorities to implement a turn back the boats approach in the English Channel. While footage shared online has shown Border Force practising the manoeuvre, the agency has so far refused to enact a migrant boat pushback.
Last week a Border Force official claimed that the agency has no intention of implementing Patel’s strategy, saying: “There is fairly universal agreement that this is not likely to ever happen.”
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents border officials, said on Sunday that they will be seeking a judicial review to prevent the tactics from being put into place, citing concerns over safety.
PCS Spokesman Kevin Mills said per the Daily Mail: “If someone dies, it won’t be Priti Patel taking the body out of the water.”
Further demonstrating the Border Force’s opposition to actually protecting the nation’s borders, the outgoing head of the agency was revealed over the weekend to have complained that “bloody borders” are a “pain in the bloody ass” during his going-away speech.
There is growing political pressure from within the Tory Party for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take action to stop the migrant crisis and adopt the Australian-style pushback.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said: “Criminal gangs have been running rings around the French authorities for too long. It’s important to hear France’s plan to turn the tables on the people traffickers, bring an end to the migrant crisis and prevent further loss of life in the Channel.”
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen added: “If they knew they were going to be turned around immediately and sent back to France, it would take a week and it would stop.”
The former Minister of State for Security, Sir John Hayes went further, arguing that migrants should be forced to apply for asylum in offshore locations.
This, Hayes noted, had a “dramatic effect” when it was used in former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy, which has all but eliminated illegal boat migration to the Commonwealth nation.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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