The total number of illegal boat migrants that have crossed the English Channel so far this year has reached 4,500 after over 500 arrived this week, despite yet another deal with France to step up patrols.
Amid a series of measures announced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the people-smuggler-facilitated illegal boat migrant trade has once again ramped up this week, with 437 migrants being brought ashore by UK Border Force on Wednesday.
An additional 77 illegals were recorded reaching British beaches on Thursday, taking the total for the year to 4,498. Last year, a record 45,755 boat migrants crossed the busy and often dangerous waterway. While crossings have been down compared to last year, they are expected to rise once again as warmer and calmer sea conditions roll in, Sky News reported.
The latest crossings come despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak travelling to France last month, where he signed a deal with President Emmanuel Macron that pledged some £478 million (€541 million) in British taxpayer money over the next three years to help fund more patrols to crack down on the people smugglers operating in the Calais region in addition to paying for the creation of a French migrant holding centre.
The latest payoff to Paris comes on top of the over £300 million that has been sent by the UK over the past decade, during which time migrant crossings have only continued to increase. Crucially, Macron again shot down calls from London to come to an agreement on migrant returns, with the French leader passing the buck to Brussels under the pretence that any deal must be signed off at the EU level.
Meanwhile, the Tory government, which has seen its popular support crater over the past year, is planning to start housing illegals on a floating barge in the English Channel. The plan has drawn opposition even from local Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has claimed it is “evidence of failure”.
The use of the barge appears to be a stop-gap measure while the government’s main plan to deter further boat migration — the shipping of illegal migrants to asylum processing centres in Rwanda — remains in legal limbo after it was announced nearly one year ago.
The government also announced plans this week to make it more difficult for illegals to access bank accounts in the hopes of preventing them from working in the country and thereby forcing them to self-deport.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said: “Illegal working causes untold harm to our communities.
“Only those known to be here unlawfully or those who have absconded from immigrational control will have their details shared, with robust safeguards in place to prevent wrongful account closures.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka