Around 300 illegal migrants landed in Britain from France on Tuesday in the largest organised effort to cross illegally into Britain so far in 2022.
The migrants took advantage of the calm weather Tuesday morning – after heavy winds, rain and storms prevented crossings last month – and around half of the arrivals had managed to evade the authorities and land on British beaches by 11 am, before being met by officials and taken to be processed. Should the estimated more-than-300 migrant arrivals of Tuesday be subsequently confirmed by the government, it would make it the busiest single day of 2022 so far.
The remaining migrants were intercepted by the UK’s Border Force and The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) charity, but instead of being turned back were brought aboard the vessels, given blankets, and taken ashore at the port of Dover.
While there were some women and children present, the majority of those making the dangerous crossing appear to be male, the Daily Mail reports. The Home Office has previously admitted that in 2021, 90 per cent of registered boat migrant arrivals were male and three quarters were aged between 18 to 39.
As of the time of publication there have been no reports that any of those who arrived illegally on Tuesday were Ukrainian and as the boats all came from France, it is evident none were fleeing an active war zone.
Some boat migrants pay as much as £10,000 to secure their ticket into Britain, which is particularly shocking given the enormous danger murderous people smugglers are willing to put their ‘customers’ in.
The motivation for many individuals risking the sometimes fatal crossing varies, and although the generous benefits on offer for illegal migrants in Britain may factor, some French politicians have also criticised the UK for lax labour laws creating a flourishing black-market for cheap, illegal labour.
“I think it’s time for the British government to change its internal law, to make it harder and harder for illegal migrants to get a job in the UK, to get a house in the UK, to live in communities in the UK”, Pierre-Henri Dumont, the French member of the National Assembly for Calais, remarked in October 2021.
France, however, previously declined calls to work with Britain to create a meaningful strategy to tackle the illegal migration routes into Britain in November 2021.
More than 750 illegal migrants have landed in Britain since the start of March, bringing the total so far this year up to an estimated 2,239, with the government warning this could increase to as many as 65,000 by the end of the year.
Updated statistics from the British government reveal that there were “28,526 people detected arriving on small boats” into Britain in 2021, with the government admitting the actual number will be higher as “some irregular migrants will successfully evade border controls and remain in the UK undetected”.
Britain’s Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove, has branded the rise in “dangerous” illegal migrant crossings as “unacceptable”.
“Not only are they an overt abuse of our immigration laws but they also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes. Rightly, the British public has had enough”, Pursglove said.
The Conservative Party has announced plans to tackle illegal migration — almost four years after they first declared crossings a “major incident” in 2018 — with their Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently in its third reading in the House of Lords, having been voted through the House of Commons.
It is unclear how effective this bill will be in deterring and deporting illegal migrants from Britain, as Border Force workers have threatened to strike if they are made to turn back boats, and the British Army has been instructed to build new camps to house migrants, which indicates that the government is expecting the situation to worsen.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.