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Britain has urged France to speed up plans to intercept irregular migrants in shallow waters, after what one minister called “pretty shocking” scenes on Saturday when almost 1,200 such crossings were made.
John Healey, defence secretary, said migrants were being picked up by smugglers along the French coast in what was in effect a “taxi service”, and urged Paris to start stopping migrants on boats near the shoreline.
The 1,194 crossings on Saturday were the highest number of arrivals recorded on a single day this year, beating the previous record of 825 on May 21, putting renewed pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
This year is on course to set a record for Channel crossings, with more than 13,000 people having arrived so far, up 30 per cent on this point last year, according to analysis of the data by the PA news agency.
Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party is topping national opinion polls and has claimed that the prime minister has lost control of irregular migration across the channel.
Healey admitted on Sunday that Britain had “lost control of its borders” under the last Conservative government and urged France to do more to stop migrants making the dangerous journey.
Healey pointed to an announcement by Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, in February that he was seeking to change the law to allow migrants to be removed from boats in shallow water.
“I think yesterday tells us we have a really big problem, which is you’ve got French police unable to intervene and intercept the boats when they’re in shallow waters,” he told Sky News.
Healey said that Britain now had “new co-operation with the French and an agreement they’ll change the rules so the police can intervene in the water as well as on the shore”.
He said the scenes were “pretty shocking”, adding: “We saw the smugglers launching elsewhere and coming round like a taxi to pick them up.”
France said it rescued 184 migrants on Saturday, only a small fraction of those who successfully made it across to England on a calm late spring day.
The Home Office said it was “urging the French to make the necessary changes to their operational policy so their maritime forces can intervene in shallow waters as soon as possible”.
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