More than 600 small boat migrants reached the UK yesterday, pushing this year’s running total past the 6,000 mark.
On Saturday, Border Force ships picked up nine boatloads of migrants in the middle of the Channel and brought them onshore at the Port of Dover.
The Home Office confirmed there were 602 arrivals – the second-highest daily total so far this year, just below the 605 who completed the journey from northern France on February 25.
The latest arrivals brought the total so far this year to 6,077.
It also means that since Labour came to power, 70,701 migrants have crossed the Channel to reach Britain.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This is yet another day of shame for this weak Prime Minister and Home Secretary.
‘They have no control whatsoever over our borders.
‘Illegal Channel crossings are up by 45 per cent since the general election.
‘Labour’s claims to smash the gangs lie in tatters.’
He added: ‘We need to urgently leave the ECHR, which will enable us to deport these illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. Then the crossings will soon stop.
‘That is the Conservative plan, but Shabana Mahmood and Keir Starmer are too weak to do it.’
It comes after Ms Mahmood was forced to agree to a temporary deal with the French government to continue beach patrols funded by the UK taxpayer.
A previous multi-year deal with Emmanuel Macron’s government, signed in 2023, expired at the end of last month.
The £478 million package was also expected to pay for a new detention centre in France, which has still not opened.
In the new negotiations, Labour has been demanding performance-related payments, which will see funding payments staggered according to the number of migrants who are prevented from leaving the French beaches, but the French have refused to accept Ms Mahmood’s demands.
The interim deal will run for two months – costing the British taxpayer £16.2 million – as attempts are made to thrash out a longer-term agreement.
Last month, Ms Mahmood launched a separate scheme offering failed asylum seekers’ families up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave Britain, but she refused to reveal how many had taken up the offer.
Most failed asylum seeker families who are offered the cash are living in migrant hotels at an average cost of £158,000 a year per family.
Under Ms Mahmood’s scheme, they will receive £10,000 per head up to a maximum of £40,000, plus air tickets home.
This would all go away if our government rescinded the right to claim asylum in the UK and replaced it with a limited number system based on resources, where they would have to apply from abroad, not once they got here, and anyone who arrives from France, arrest them, detain them and then deport them back to their home country immediately. No ifs and no buts!
Unfortunately, the channel situation is quite complicated because you can’t return these people to the embarkation point from which they came. Unlike at an airport.
In international aviation and maritime practice, carriers are responsible for returning objectionable passengers to the point where they boarded when they arrive at a port of entry and are denied admission.
- People who arrive through an official port,
- Are presented for inspection,
- And are refused entry by border authorities.
Small‑boat arrivals in the Channel do not fall under this category, because they are not transported by a carrier and do not arrive through a port.
Sea crossings in small boats are treated as search‑and‑rescue, not as port arrivals
Under maritime law:
- When a vessel is in distress, the priority is rescue, not immigration enforcement.
- The UK is obliged to bring people to the nearest safe port capable of providing assistance.
In the Dover Strait, that is almost always the UK, not France, because:
- UK vessels are usually the ones conducting the rescue,
- The UK coast is often closer at the moment of interception,
- The UK has operational responsibility for many rescue zones.
This is why the “return to France” rule cannot simply be applied.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 