Last week’s tragic deaths in the English Channel underline the urgent need to stop small boats leaving the French coast. This crisis has gone on for far too long. Joint action by France with the UK to bring it to an end is long overdue.
This is why I have been calling for the UK and France to make the English Channel a joint safety and security zone. That way lives can be safeguarded and small boats returned to the safety of the French coast.
The current system where unseaworthy small boats are able to cross to the UK wrongfully puts lives at risk. First, they are shadowed by the French authorities – shepherded to English waters. Then the French call up the UK so the small boats can be picked up by Border Force or the RNLI. This scandalous practice simply encourages more to try the crossing – risking lives.
Moreover, if the small boats cannot cross then migrants and traffickers alike will stop trying.
It’s clear things cannot carry on like this. Everyone knows the crisis will not end with Rwanda alone. It will end only when the UK and France act together to put a stop to it. That means picking up small boats to protect lives – and taking them back to the safety of the French coast so migrants and traffickers alike will know they cannot succeed.
Ending this crisis should be something on which we are all united. After all, how can anyone support allowing people to get into overloaded, unseaworthy craft when people are already safe in France and can, if applicable, seek humanitarian aid there too.
How can anyone stand by while criminals ruthlessly exploit vulnerable people – and use the money gained to finance their other criminal enterprises? Also very concerning is that criminals and even suspected terrorists have been able to sneak into the country on small boats.
This is why all our effort should not be directed solely at Rwanda but to a deal with France and the EU to stop these crossings.
Some say that France will never agree. I disagree. The two way – juxtaposed – controls in place at the borders between our nations were agreed by the UK and France to protect security and deter illegal lorry smuggling following the years of Sangatte and the Calais Jungle. At that time, people said a deal with France wasn’t possible. It was and it worked to dramatically cut the lorry smuggling.
The crisis is costing us all billions of pounds which is far better spent on the NHS and other vital public services on which we all rely. Safer, secure borders, saving lives at sea and spending public money wisely must be at the heart of all we do.