Priti Patel refuses to set target date for ending illegal migrants crossing Channel on small boats
Priti Patel has refused to set a new target for reducing illegal migrant crossings to an "infrequent phenomenon.”
Despite aiming to eradicate the migrants by Spring this year when she became Home Secretary, she said she would not set a target date, adding that crossings were a "complicated issue" and the English Channel has become "far too viable for criminals".
Less than a year ago she vowed "urgent action" on the dangerous crossings, pledging to make them an “infrequent phenomenon.”
However, more than 2,300 migrants - using everything from small boats, inflatable dinghies to kayaks - have crossed to the UK in the first six months of 2020, overtaking the total of 1,890 for the entire year of 2019.
The Home Secretary told the Press Association on Monday there were "far too many crossings."
Asked if there was a new target date for the crossings to be reduced to an "infrequent phenomenon," she replied: "No. The fact of the matter is, I've said from day one this is a complicated issue. Illegal migration has been a feature of every single Government.
"The fact of the matter is, and I have repeatedly said this, when it comes to small boats in particular that is a route that has become far too viable for criminals."
Ms Patel added: "Camps in Calais, northern France has become a magnet basically for criminals to come in, facilitate people trafficking and that's why we have to work with the French authorities to get on top of this and stop this."
The Home Secretary 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.
She 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.
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.
