Over 1,600 migrants aboard 38 small boats were intercepted from Sunday to Monday in the English Channel by British authorities, with Brexit leader Nigel Farage asking of the migrant crisis: “when is enough, enough?”.
A total of 1,065 migrants on 25 small boats were intercepted by British authorities on Sunday, with a further 360 migrants intercepted by French authorities and brought back to France from the Strait of Pas-de-Calais. On Monday, a further 539 migrants were found in the English Channel, according to UK Ministry of Defence figures on 13 small boats, making for 1,604 in all over two days.
One boat — which are typically large rubber inflatable craft — rescued by French authorities had as many as 68 migrants on board, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
French maritime authorities later released a statement on Sunday’s operations, dealing with the three rescues of migrant boats, each containing at least three dozen people or more, and noted the difficult weather conditions in the Channel. Indeed, the weather in the Channel has been so bad this past week there were no migrant crossings at all on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
One of the leading voices on the challenge of illegal migrant crossings has been Brexit boss Nigel Farage, who created a national debate on the matter in 2020 when Channel crossings were rarely if ever discussed, made his frustration known on his nightly show on GB News, telling the camera: “35,000 people have now crossed the English Channel. And they’re coming at an increasing rate… 1,000 people crossed the English Channel yesterday.
“I haven’t got the breakdown, but I’ll bet you as sure as eggs is eggs, it’ll be over 90% young men. I’ll also bet you that over half of them are coming from Albania. In fact they were coming right through the day and night yesterday… I will promise you on Tuesday and Wednesday this week the numbers will be huge because we’re in for some very, very calm and settled weather.”
Freshly returned from a two-week speaking tour in Australia, Farage reacted with disappointment that in his absence form the UK the migrant crisis had dropped from the news cycle, with only one of ten of the country’s ten national papers giving any coverage to the Channel whatsoever.
Rhetorically, Farage asked of the migrant crisis: “when is enough, enough?”
The number of illegal migrant crossings has surged this year, breaking the all-time record high number of arrivals set in 2021 last month and with here months to spare until the end of this year.
Just weeks later, the total number of migrants to have crossed illegally into the United Kingdom reached 30,000 for other first time ever.
Numbers in the Channel continue to remain high despite major busts of people trafficking networks, including the dismantling of a large network last month by French authorities that saw the largest seizure of nautical equipment ever in France.
People smugglers are said to be making a fortune due to the number of migrants wishing to cross the Channel, with one Albanian, nicknamed the “Golden Lion” allegedly making at much as a million pounds per week trafficking migrants to the UK.
“People on the boat phone their relatives and then they phone the UK police to get you. As soon [as] you cross the water they will give you food, everything. If people are cold they give them blankets,” the Albanian told undercover reporters.
“They then drop you at a camp. It will be one day or two days until they register you and see if you are a wanted person and then they let you free and send you to a hotel,” he added.
The UK’s new Home Secretary Suella Braverman, meanwhile, has called for tougher border controls in the Channel and rejected allegations that border control was “racist.”
“It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise to want to control our borders. It’s not bigoted to say that there are too many asylum seekers that are abusing the system. It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration places pressure on housing, public services and community relations,” Braverman said earlier this month.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.