Britain is showing feckless France how to stop the boats
What sets this example, and the convictions, apart from the norm is where the gang were smuggling the people to and from: from Britain, to France.
The migrants were north African and were said to prefer France, as it was more familiar to them. I offer my apologies on behalf of the British people if we weren't making them feel sufficiently at home here, after their arrival on tourist visas which they then overstayed.
Last year, 93 migrants were arrested for crossing illegally from the UK to France. So it's certainly unusual. Indeed, the spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA), which investigated the gang, has a good line in drollery, describing the case as 'an anomaly' and a departure from the usual model of smuggling migrants from Calais into the UK. You don't say.
But here's the thing about the case. It was indeed an example of excellent work by the NCA. It's far from unusual in that respect. The NCA intercepted the migrants before they were able to cross the border and arrested those responsible. Imagine, however, if it had been the other way round. Imagine if it had been a gang smuggling people from France to Britain.
That is, of course, an idiotic sentence to write because no one has to imagine it. It happens almost every day, and in increasingly record numbers. And what do the French police do? More often than not, they stand and watch, refusing to intervene when they see boats packed with migrants.
Earlier this month some gendarmes waded into the shallow water off a beach near Boulogne and slashed an inflatable small boat with knives. But they have been at pains to point out this was a one-off, rather than an obvious new tactic, adopted solely because the boat – packed with people – was wallowing dangerously in the waves.
The contrast seems stark. Two years ago we agreed to pay the French £480m for additional border patrols and surveillance equipment. Much good it has done. Almost 20,000 people arrived in the UK in the first half of this year in small boats – up 48 per cent on the first six months of 2024. Last week Keir Starmer and Emanuel Macron trumpeted their new 'one in, one out' agreement – but it first has to be approved by the EU, then by the French courts, and even then may have negligible impact. When it comes to people smuggling, it seems only one side of the Channel actually gives a damn.
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