Tens of millions to France with no return
After handing over tens of millions of tax payers’ money to the French government to help stop small boats crossing the English Channel, it could quite easily be argued that the UK has seen zero benefit.
The numbers of illegal migrants – mainly young men who see Britain as a soft touch – who have made that trip since the 299 recorded in 2018 has increased exponentially most years until 2022 where it peaked at 45,755. In 2023 we welcomed 29,437 more and, in 2024, a further 36,816.
British funding of failed French policy
Despite Keir Starmer’s “smash the gangs” rhetoric, the number has passed 40,000 since the Labour Party took charge just under a year ago, and we’re on track for a new record in 2025. A total, dismal failure of policy.
We’re currently having a spell of lovely weather, so the small boats will be landing thick and fast on the shores of Kent. You watch.
The French police, having struggled to find a legal way to police their own waters, now appear ready to leap into action after ex-PM Rishi Sunaks’ promise of £487 million over three years in 2023 to help fund the French in their quest to stop the boats. However, they look to face a lawsuit backed by Care4Calais. In other other words, yet more human rights lawyers hell bent on keeping the flow of illegal migration going.
Will someone think of all those children?
French police were looking to intercept the people smugglers guiding small boats at sea in its latest iteration of failed attempts to take any meaningful action, but a Care4Calais spokesman has cast shade on the plan, saying it would be “impossibly dangerous if you were to try stop them when there are women and children on board.”
Yes, there are occasionally women and children on board these boats. They make up an estimated 10% of the flimsy vessels’ passengers. But there is a valid point here: the failure of successive government attempts to solve this problem has put lives, including those of women and children, at risk and in some cases has led to tragic deaths. And yet the human rights lawyers remain ideologically wedded to opposing steps to resolve this problem.
NGO has more power than government
Care4Calais joined the union for Border Force workers as well as a number of human rights charities in 2022 to force the UK Home Office to discontinue plans to push the small boats back to sea rather than allow them to land. The meddlesome group sought a judicial review citing the Refugee Convention and Human Rights Act. They were also instrumental in scuppering the Rwanda Policy that would have seen illegal migrants flown back to the African country for holding and administrating. Even before its implementation the Rwanda scheme was already serving, as intended, as a deterrent to illegal migrants considering making the perilous crossing.
But the oh so virtuous human rights brigade blocked it. This rabble of hard-left lawyers wants the small boats to keep coming – adding billions of pounds a year to the UK’s bill for putting up illegal migrants in hotels, not to mention endless legal challenges to rightful steps to see them deported back to their countries of origin.
UK must exit ECHR to end small boats problem
Despite this, French sources say they are looking to go ahead with the implementation of this policy and have it running by the time the Franco-British summit begins on July 8. French government spokespeople insist that any attempts to intercept the “taxi boats” will respect the UN Convention and the Law of the Sea.
The past 15 years – 14 under the Tories and one under Labour – tell you these are just empty words. Unless and until the UK exits the jurisdiction of the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights), the lefty lawyers will continue to frustrate every step to solve this problem. Until then, don’t get your hopes up.
