The French Navy forced a cross-Channel ferry to perform a dangerous manoeuvre so that the warship could escort illegal migrant boats into UK waters on Easter, a report has claimed.
According to naval charts seen by the Daily Mail, a French warship forced the P&O ferry Spirit of Britain to take a detour in the busy English Channel during difficult weather conditions on Easter Sunday to make way for it to escort two small boats carrying around 90 illegal migrants into British waters and hand them over to the UK Border Force rather than simply returning them to France.
In a message to the ferry, a female French officer reportedly said: “I am currently ahead of you for three nautical miles. About to start operation with two small migrant craft and Border Force Typhoon. Is it possible for you to take a wide berth on your port side?”
This was corrected by the Spirit of Britain officer, who informed the French warship that the actual distance was five nautical miles and added: “Unfortunately, due to the shipping traffic we can’t come to port in restricted visibility. So, we will alter course to starboard.”
Speaking to the British paper, English fishermen criticised the move by the French naval vessel as it was a “dangerous operation which could have cost lives of migrants and seamen”.
One fishing boat captain said: “Visibility was down to 100 metres because of heavy fog. The French warship made an erratic course through the shipping lane after telling the ferry to get out of its way.”
“The sole aim of the operation seemed to be getting the two migrant boats out of French waters and handed over to the British as swiftly as possible.”
The practice of the French Navy to escort people smuggler-operated small boats into British waters has been long-standing, with the French claiming that it would somehow be more dangerous for them to try to return the boats to the beaches where they set off from.
It was first uncovered by Brexit leader Nigel Farage in 2020 when he filmed an “absolutely packed” migrant boat in the English Channel being shadowed by the French Navy into UK territorial waters, where the migrants were ultimately handed off to the UK Border Force.
The footage from Farage was later backed up by reporting from Breitbart London, which revealed that the French Navy’s own transponder data showed the French not only handed over migrants on the day Mr Farage filmed but had likely done the same procedure the week before, as well.
So far this year, around 5,000 illegals have been recorded as successfully crossing the Channel, with 1,000 arriving on British beaches in the past week, alone. The uptick in people smuggler gang-facilitated crossings comes despite UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signing a deal with President Emmanuel Macron last month to see patrols of French coasts increased.
Yet, the latest payoff to Paris — worth £478 million (€541 million) in British taxpayer money over the next three years — made no mention of returning migrants back to France. The failure of the government to secure such a deal from France or at the EU level has resulted in further issues in attempts to deport illegals, with the Home Office only managing to remove 215 illegals out of the 45,000 who arrived last year.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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