Record number of people cross Channel to UK in small boats

[dutchman]

[rebbonk]

I caught a news item (possibly on Farage) where it appears that the authorities are intending to stop giving us the daily figures of these illegal immigrants.

I guess that's one way of trying to convince the public that the flow has been stemmed!

[dutchman]

Channel migrant crossing daily figures to end



The government is planning to stop disclosing daily figures on how many migrants cross the Channel amid forecasts of another record year for the route.

Almost 1,000 migrants have already crossed the Channel this month — four times as many as in the whole of January last year.

The move comes after the UK Statistics Authority criticised the Home Office for the quality of data on Channel crossings in November because of a lack of transparency and accessibility.

The Home Office said that it would publish daily data until the Ministry of Defence took over operational control of the Channel migrant crossings next month. Figures would then be published every three months, in line with the publication of other official statistics.

A senior Conservative MP said that the move was undemocratic. Tim Loughton, who sits on the home affairs committee, told The Times: “I’m concerned about the proposed restriction of data on the numbers coming across the Channel because that doesn’t deal with the underlying problem. And I think the British public have a right to know how much of an issue this remains on a day-to-day basis.”

The Office for National Statistics haven't published any quarterly figures for total migration since March of 2020. It could be a million a year for all we know?

https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statis ... statistics

[rebbonk]

I spent many years at a well known auto-manufacturer. We were beset with problems, but what the engineers learned very quickly was that if you can't fix the problem, fix the measure! Measures are usually a lot easier to fix than the problems they relate to.

[dutchman]

Channel migrants now more than three-quarters of those illegally entering UK



Migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats now account for more than three quarters of the total number of people illegally entering the UK, the first official data of the crisis has shown.

Home Office figures revealed there were 36,792 "irregular" migrations to the UK last year, with 28,526, or 78 per cent, of those made in small boats crossing the Channel.

According to the data, the number of people illegally entering the UK more than doubled last year, while arrivals on small boats tripled.

Boats crossing the Channel made up less than half of the methods of illegal entry to Britain in 2020, and just over 10 per cent in 2019. The numbers from other methods of entry, such as air travel and arriving through ferry ports, have fallen in recent years.

The data, released on Thursday, lay bare the scale of the migrant crisis in the world's busiest shipping lane.

The record numbers crossing last year included more than 3,000 children, while three-quarters of those making the dangerous journey are men under the age of 40.

Iranian nationals made up around 30 per cent of all arrivals on small boats, with a greater mix of nationalities recorded since 2020, the Home Office said. On average, 28 people boarded vessels bound for the UK in 2021, up from 13 the previous year.

Kevin Foster, the minister for safe and legal migration said: "The UK's asylum system is broken and has been unreformed for over two decades. This government is fixing our country's approach to illegal entry to the UK and asylum by making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and UK taxpayers.

"We know there is no simple solution to this problem, but our New Plan for Immigration will deliver the fair but firm system the British people have repeatedly voted for."

Asylum applications, work and study visas, and applications for citizenship and settlement were all higher than pre-Covid levels. Last year saw a 25 per cent increase in work visas, a 52 per cent increase in study visas, and a 14 per cent rise in settlement applications since 2019.

There were 48,540 asylum applications in the UK in 2021, 63 per cent more than in the previous year.

The Home Office said this was "higher than at the peak of the European migration crisis" in 2015 and 2016 and the highest number of applications since 2003.

Further data released by the Government showed that 100,000 people are still waiting for an initial decision on their asylum applications – a number that has more than tripled in four years.

[dutchman]

Priti Patel’s plan to end Channel crossings in disarray as navy threatens to ‘walk away’



The Royal Navy is threatening to “walk away” from Boris Johnson and Priti Patel’s plan to stem the number of boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel as official data shows how spectacularly the policy has backfired.

Defence chiefs are said to be fed up with trying to enact the prime minister and home secretary’s rapidly imploding plan of using the military to control small boats in the Channel.

Ministry of Defence data shows crossings have close to doubled since the military was given “primacy” over the issue from mid-April compared with the first three months of this year.

Patel and Johnson were warned that deploying the Royal Navy would be likely to increase the number of crossings but ignored expert advice because, according to internal sources, they wanted to appear tough.

One former defence minister told the Observer that their miscalculation had guaranteed the navy was effectively providing an “efficient taxi service” for asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, senior Home Office sources have admitted the UK could receive up to 60,000 people by small boat this year – double last year’s record – with another 20,000 arriving by different routes, undermining the credibility of Patel, who has made reducing crossings her priority.

Defence chiefs hope Johnson’s resignation is an opportunity to scrap the Channel initiative as it also ties up resources at a time of escalating international security threats. Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chair of the influential defence committee, which has completed a damning inquiry into the use of the military in the Channel, said: “I know the MoD really wants to walk away from this, wants this to conclude. There’ll be less political pressure now. The prime minister is going.”

The former soldier added: “From my personal perspective, I can say this is a complete waste of naval time. The navy is already overstretched.”

John Spellar, the Labour vice-chair of the defence committee and a former defence minister, said the scheme had effectively reduced the navy to a “taxi service”.

[dutchman]

Channel migrants allowed into UK without checks to identify potential terrorists



Channel migrants have been allowed into the UK without ID or fingerprint checks to identify potential terrorists or criminals, a damning inspection has revealed.

David Neal, the chief inspector of borders and immigration, said some had subsequently absconded from asylum hotels, with Border Force staff warning that had put national security at risk.

As many as two thirds of those who disappeared from “secure” hotels had not undergone the necessary “biometric enrolment” to record their IDs and fingerprints so they could be identified and tracked, Mr Neal’s report revealed.

He said that not only raised a security risk but also left migrants vulnerable to trafficking, modern slavery and other abuses, adding: “Put simply, if we don’t have a record of people coming into the country then we do not know who is threatened or who is threatening.”

Mr Neal blamed the “inexcusably awful” record-keeping on a “system failure” due to officers being “clearly overwhelmed” by the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Numbers hit a record 28,526 last year, with 15,000 people having reached the UK already this year.

The report, published on Thursday, said ID and fingerprint checks on migrants had been suspended on a “number of occasions” as Border Force officers relied on “virtually obsolete” 20-year-old handheld technology that often broke down and could not collect the information.

This meant biometric data, the key to “locking in a migrant’s identity” and a “basic state function” to protect national security, was not always recorded.

The Home Office told inspectors that 227 migrants had absconded from hotels since last September. Of 57 who disappeared from Dec 1 to Jan 7, 38 had not had their biometrics enrolled despite having been in Britain for 16 days on average.

Border Force staff told inspectors they were concerned that this meant “they cannot meet the country’s national security requirements” as, without biometric checks, they had to rely on information provided by migrants, which was “open to mistakes or deception”.

“It is the enrolled biometric which ‘locks’ the identity and essentially overrides the biographic information such as date of birth or name – if the latter is false, it does not matter as the biometrics mean the individual is known to the system,” said the report.

It meant those who had entered the UK “for other purposes” could drop below the radar. Counter-terror police told the inspectors it was “extremely important for [biometric] enrolment to occur as early as possible to identify persons of interest before they are dispersed”.

[dutchman]

Number of English Channel migrant crossings surpasses 2021 record



The number of people who have crossed the English Channel to the UK aboard small boats has passed the total for all of 2021 - with more than three months left of the year.

At least 601 people made the dangerous journey to Britain on Monday - bringing the total for the year to at least 28,561.

By comparison, 28,526 made the crossing in 2021 in what was a record year.

Despite boasting some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the English Channel has seen more and more people risking their lives to reach the UK in recent years, often aboard unseaworthy dinghies, after being exploited by human trafficking gangs.

In December 2018, then home secretary Sajid Javid declared a major incident over crossings, in a year when just 299 people made the journey.

Since then, the Home Office has repeatedly vowed to make the route "unviable" - but the number of arrivals has continued to rise. Some 1,843 were detected in 2019, 8,466 in 2020, and 28,526 in 2021.

It was thought as many as 60,000 people could reach Britain in small boats this year.

[rebbonk]

The way to stop this is very simple; turn off the benefits tap! These people are, in the main, not refugees, but idlers looking for an easy life.

While we were part of the EU, we were not allowed to treat people differently within our borders. We are no longer bound by these rules, so there is no reason why we can't revert to the old 'x' years of paying into the pot before you can draw anything out.

Of course, with the blue-rinsed, lily-livered, yellow-bellied brigade, we have in this country, it won't happen. But then again, maybe I'm just an old fascist at heart?

[dutchman]