Government planning new laws to force Channel migrants back to France

The Government is planning to bring in new laws after Britain leaves the EU to make it easier to return cross-Channel migrants to France, Priti Patel said on Wednesday.

The Home Secretary plans to replace the current agreement with France and the EU with a new legal framework that will allow Britain to return illegal migrants whether caught on sea or land.

The moves follow a surge in migrants using small boats to cross the Channel including 1,081 during lockdown. It means 1,560 have arrived in the UK this year, against 1,800 in the whole of 2019. On Wednesday, a total of 64 people in five boats were rescued, including some from a RHIB that was taking on water.

Nigel Farage, the former Brexit party leader, yesterday took to a boat in the Channel where he filmed the rescue of migrants showing what he claimed were the French escorting them into British waters.

"I just witnessed the French Navy escorting illegal migrants into British waters, despite the money we are paying them. They even tried to prevent us from filming the handover. This is an outrage and a scandal. Time for the government to get a grip." he said.

Ms Patel said the new laws would enable the UK “to do much more to enforce this principle that if you come from a safe country, you will be going back to that safe country. You will not be able to claim asylum in this country.”

This is the supposed principle behind the Dublin agreement that makes any EU country in which any asylum seeker first applies for asylum responsible for processing the claim.

But Home Office sources say the agreement is “rigid and restrictive” as it prevents the UK returning migrants who have dodged fingerprint and identity checks as they have made their way across the EU, often through numerous countries where they should have been processed.

Only 155 migrants who arrived on small boats between January 2019 and early April 2020 were returned to France despite about 2,500 detected arrivals. That represents six per cent of the total.

Ms Patel said that once Britain left the EU, it would be free to renegotiate the Dublin agreement and introduce its own immigration laws.

“We are not extending our transition period with the European Union at the end of this year. We’re out at the end of this year fully. Therefore, we’re not going to be bound by some of the regulations around how we handle illegal migration,” she told LBC yesterday.

“We intend to introduce new laws that look at the whole end to end system including some of the pull factors that exist within our own asylum system right now, but also our immigration system that make the UK an attractive place to come to.”

Home Office sources believe the French will be sympathetic to a new treaty to accept returns from sea or land as the only way to deter migrants from attempting the perilous journey and driving out the organised crime gangs of smugglers who prey on them in northern France.

“There is a major, major problem in terms of people coming into France and then trying to get over here,” said Ms Patel.

“We are using drones, we are using helicopters, we are using night vision goggles, you name it, we are using it. The issue that we have is that the amount of beach space that is being patrolled is vast in France and these individuals (the criminal gangs) are using all sorts of tactics - some covert, some overt.

The Home Secretary said that agencies on both sides of the Channel were “working night and day” to stop the criminal gangs and halt the number of crossings.

“We are arresting people and we are returning people as well. We are using the full arm of the law enforcement,” said Ms Patel.

In 2019 Immigration Enforcement made 418 arrests, leading to 203 convictions for a total of 437 years. Of these 259 arrests and 101 convictions were people smuggling.

Ms Patel said she would examine the UK’s immigration bail system. “We will effectively look now to change our laws around immigration bail to make sure that the pull factors of our immigration and legal system no longer exist. They will be changes that we are looking to bring in. That will require legislation and that will take time.”