Britain's increasingly Indian cabinet is being forced to take a stance against the rising tide of illegal immigration breaking on the Southern shores of the tiny and crowded North Atlantic island.
Priti Patel has sanctioned the use of controversial “pushback” tactics to intercept and turn round migrants’ small boats mid-Channel to prevent them reaching the UK.
The Home Secretary has secured legal advice for Border Force vessels to start redirecting migrant boats away from UK waters and back towards France, where the French will have to return them to shore.
The move puts her on collision course with the French who have consistently refused to intercept or turn back migrant boats and instead escorted them to British waters. They claim such tactics would be a breach of trust, illegal under international maritime law and dangerous to life.
The new strategy, already extensively trialled for months by Border Force at sea, has been backed by Boris Johnson, who told MPs on Wednesday that the Government was going to “use every possible tactic at our disposal to stop what I think is a vile trade”.
Sea training by Border Force, and overseen by the Royal Marines, is due to conclude this month, weather permitting. Sources said that the tactics were ready to deploy as soon as practical and safe.
In fact, that's exactly why the migrants want to come to the UK in the first place, because Brits are seen as a "soft touch" compared to the French.
Border Force has told ministers it will be able to deploy “turnarounds” only when they deem them safe to do so. They are likely to be restricted to sturdier, bigger migrant boats and used only in “very limited circumstances.” A source said: “It is a deterrent, not a silver bullet.”
Lucy Moreton, the professional officer for the ISU trade union for borders, customs and immigration workers, said it would be “exceptionally rare” because it was so dangerous and its use potentially so limited that it could be a “waste of time and money”.
Yeh, this story is practically meaningless. All that the migrants would have to do to ensure getting safely to Britain is to jump in the sea for a few seconds -- or just threaten to.
The number of fake refugess invading the UK's southern shores this year is set to pass 14,000 this year, compared with 8,400 for the whole of 2020. The Home Office confirmed 785 migrants on Monday (6th Sept), the second highest daily total this year after 828.
In related news, non-Third-World women continued to have less than 1.5 kids per woman for approximately the 50th year in a row.
