Report: Putin accused of wielding migrants to flood UK borders
Russia is aggravating Britain's migrant crisis to overwhelm border defences and sow division in the nation, security sources have claimed. Vladimir Putin's government is believed to be providing fake documents, transport and even military escorts to smuggling gangs ferrying migrants across the Channel.
The threat overwhelming migration poses to national security is so fierce that this week Nato recognised it by allowing its members to count border protection to spending targets for the first time. A security source told The Sun : 'Hostile states and malign actors are using illegal migration to test borders, cause disruption and destabilise countries like Britain. That's exactly why Nato is now treating border protection as a core part of collective defence — because the lines between traditional military threats and national security are more blurred than ever.'
So far this year, over 18,000 people have arrived in small boats. This is far higher than 2018, when just 299 people crossed the Channel. The highest year for arrivals was 2022, which saw nearly 46,000 people arrive. On top of the threat to British national security, Russia's alleged actions are also harming those crossing the Channel, who are often desperate and vulnerable.
Earlier this month, a man on crutches was seen hobbling over to a small boat on French soil and making his way over to England, less than 24 hours after failing in his mission. The man was spotted holding his crutch aloft like Excalibur as his fellow migrants helped him aboard. Within minutes, the rubber boat was full to bursting, around 20 migrants sitting on each side and more in the middle.
It then set off across the Channel towards England, passing over the horizon within a quarter of an hour. Whether it arrived is unclear. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who scrapped the Conservative plan to send small boat arrivals to Rwanda, continues to declare he will be able to 'smash the gangs' and stop the boats with the aid of French police, who we are sending millions to.
Yet the migrants continue to exploit the loophole which means once they are in the sea, even up to the ankles, police will touch neither them nor their dinghies, through fear of harming them, meaning they are free to sail to England. And police have told the Mail there are simply too many migrants, and too much shoreline near England, for them ever to be stopped - particularly as they are confident they will be welcomed here.
Latest figures show £3.1 billion was spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7 billion. More than 30,000 asylum seekers are housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, many of whom arrived illegally in dinghies, and ministers are looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs.
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