More than 10,000 migrants on small boats have arrived in the UK since Labour’s victory in July, official figures show, Daily Mail reports.
On Monday, 65 people on two boats made the perilous journey, bringing the total number of migrants who have arrived in the UK since Labour was elected on July 4 to 10,024 from 178. It comes after a deadly weekend during which eight people died and more than 1,000 made it safely to the UK.
French authorities launched a rescue operation in the early hours of Tuesday morning after passengers became stranded.
Sources confirmed that 20 people were rescued from one boat, while the remaining migrants continue to make their way towards the British coast. French authorities decided not to disembark additional people as it would have posed too great a risk to their safety.
Since the beginning of the year, 23,598 people on 450 boats have successfully made the dangerous journey. In that time, at least 43 people have died in the Channel, including 20 in September alone.
Following the tragic loss of life in the Channel at the weekend, the Home Office has again pledged to “wipe out the gangs.”
A Home Office spokesman said:
We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. As we have seen with so many recent devastating tragedies in the Channel, the people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. We are making progress, bolstering our personnel numbers in the UK and abroad. Our new Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and enhance our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute these evil criminals.
Former police chief Martin Hewitt was recently appointed as the new head of the Border Security Command, tasked with reducing small boat migration.
“No more gimmicks”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said:
No more gimmicks. This government will tackle the smuggling gangs who trade the lives of men, women and children across borders. Martin Hewitt’s unique expertise will lead a new era of international enforcement to dismantle these networks, protect our shores and bring order to the asylum system.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that £75 million will be used to increase the number of border officers as part of the government’s efforts to crack down on smugglers, using money diverted from a cancelled deportation scheme in Rwanda.
The money will also be used to buy hidden cameras and better monitoring technology as the Home Office sets up a new Border Security Command, headed by a former police chief, to speed up investigations and increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions.
It was also announced earlier this year that an extra 100 specialist investigators would be allocated to the National Crime Agency (NCA) as part of the crackdown on Channel crossings.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Rome, the Prime Minister said he was “very interested” in Italy’s efforts to curb levels of illegal immigration. He added that the government wants to understand the “dramatic reduction” in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, amid Labour’s efforts to crack down on criminal gangs involved in people smuggling.
