Latest news with #Channelcrossing
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant dies trying to cross Channel
A man has died after suffering a cardiac arrest on a boat trying to reach the UK, French authorities have confirmed. The boat turned back towards Équihen beach in northern France on Saturday morning. When it arrived at the beach, a man was found on board in cardiac arrest, the Pas-de-Calais department's sub-prefecture told the PA news agency. Despite emergency services intervening at the scene, he died soon after. An investigation was under way to determine the circumstances of the man's death, the French authorities confirmed. According to Home Office provisional statistics, almost 24,000 people have arrived on small boats in the UK in 2025. Saturday's incident was the 11th migrant death in the Channel so far this year, after an unconscious woman was pulled from the water in May. She later died. The previous month, another migrant died as 51 survivors disembarked a Border Force vessel at Dover harbour on April 18. Figures from the UN's International Organisation for Migration estimate that some 82 migrants died or went missing attempting the crossing last year, making it the deadliest on record. It comes after it was revealed migrants could be housed in empty homes and properties bought by councils. The Government is proposing pilot schemes in which it could pay councils to buy or renovate property, which they would lease back to the Home Office, to house asylum seekers. Meanwhile, police braced for fresh protests against asylum hotels this weekend, following 16 arrests for violence at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex. The violence followed anger over the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by a 38-year-old migrant from Ethiopia. Some 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in around 210 hotels, according to the latest Home Office data from March. This compares with just under 30,000 last June, days before Labour won the election, but down from the peak of 56,000 at 400 hotels in September 2023 at a cost of £9m a day.
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Leaked document shows boat slashing failed to stop migrants reaching UK
New concerns about the safety and viability of the flagship UK-French policy to intercept migrant dinghies at sea have emerged after a coastguard log leaked to the Guardian revealed a recent boat-slashing incident that failed to stop people reaching the UK. Despite the government's pledge to stop overcrowded dinghies crossing the Channel, the number of people arriving in the UK on small boats this year has increased by about 50% compared with the same period last year, with more than 21,000 crossing so far in 2025. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced a 'one in, one out' deal at their recent meeting under which one person would be allowed to travel legally to the UK to claim asylum in exchange for another who arrived irregularly being returned to France. A second part of the deal is the interception of overcrowded dinghies up to 300 metres out to sea. The practice has been happening since at least 2022, according to an investigation last year by Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde, the Observer and Der Spiegel. The incident, revealed to the Guardian in a log known as a situation report or Sitrep from the Gris-Nez maritime rescue coordination centre, happened overnight on 9/10 July just hours before the Starmer-Macron announcement. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said in media interviews last week that France was reviewing tactics that might produce change based on the principle of intervening in French waters and that it would take forward the conclusions of that review. According to the log, the incident began at 11.21pm on the night of 9 July when the gendarmerie intervened in the departure of a dinghy from Cayeux-sur-Mer by puncturing it. Then they lost sight of the boat and at 11.22 the coastguard was asked to search with air and sea resources. The coastguard identified the dinghy in the early hours of 10 July. Despite having been slashed it picked up more passengers along the coast and arrived in the UK with 55 passengers the same day after it was rescued by an RNLI lifeboat. Home Office data shows that 10 boats arrived that day carrying 573 passengers. French coastguard sources said the incident was evidence that even when the gendarmarie had slashed a dinghy, if it remains afloat those on board would not be deterred from trying to reach the UK. It also highlights that the boat-slashing tactic requires extra sea rescue resources. In an open letter to its director published in French media on 25 June from the French coastguard union, Solidaires Douannes, concerns were raised about 'increasing institutional mistreatment of people in exile' as part of stop-the-boats policies. Separately it has emerged that the Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport has been earmarked to detain people who arrive in small boats before their return to France. It is not known how the Home Office will select those for return, nor for how long they will be detained. Brook House was previously the subject of a public inquiry after damning undercover footage of mistreatment of detainees obtained by BBC's Panorama. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The head of advocacy and public affairs at Care4Calais, Charlotte Khan, condemned the evidence contained in the coastguard log. 'We have become accustomed to police brutality being used against the refugee community in northern France over many years, but what we are witnessing just now is a rapid increase in this state-funded violence,' she said. 'Slashing boats in the water will put lives at risk, but as these disturbing logs show, it won't stop people making dangerous journeys to seek safety in the UK. Not when they have already fled war and persecution at home, and survived unimaginable dangers on their journey. 'The fact people are willing to risk their lives to seek safety in the UK in the first place should be enough evidence that so-called deterrents, regardless of how brutal they are, do not work. They only make people take ever more dangerous journeys. The only way to stop crossings is to offer safe routes to claim asylum.' Home Office sources said the French government had not yet announced the outcome of their review, but that officials hoped maritime operational teams would soon be able to intervene to stop boats in the water.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tory benches almost deserted as Philp cops a lesson on small boats
It was all a bit of a mystery. Just where were the Tories? Had they just got their dates confused? Thought that recess started this week rather than next? Or had they all bunked off to Lord's to see England beat India in a tight finish? Or maybe some – caught up in the entente amicale aftermath of Emmanuel Macron's state visit – had taken the Eurostar to Paris to enjoy steak frites on Bastille Day? You'd have thought the Conservative backbenchers would have wanted to be out in force to hear Yvette Cooper's statement on the new arrangements for dealing with small boats. After all, this is the stuff that Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp live and breathe. The reason they get up in the morning. To wage a two-person war on those making the Channel crossing. So surely Tory MPs would be desperate to have their say. A show of strength. But weirdly there were only five and most of them were to scuttle off long before the end. When Keir Starmer had announced his new 'one in, one out' returns deal with Macron last Thursday, he had sounded slightly too keen. As if he was somehow trying to overcompensate for the fact that he hadn't landed quite the deal he had hoped. Desperate to talk up that 50 returns a week was a sizeable deterrent to those thinking of making the crossing. Not that he was willing to discuss any numbers. Though 50 was the magic number. The difference between success and failure. Four days on and the home secretary had no such qualms as she made a statement to the Commons on the new initiative. Everything has been too weak for far too long, she said. It all started in 2018 and had got steadily worse. But everything was going to stop right now. New cooperation. Stronger borders. Great new deal with France. It might not be the best deal going, but it was the first of its kind. Better than the Tories had managed to negotiate after they had spent every year since Brexit slagging off the French. One Tory who had turned up was Philp, the shadow home secretary. Though by the end he was probably wishing he hadn't. Because, as the saying goes, he had his arse handed to him on a plate. The Philpster's tragedy is that he sees himself as one of life's success stories. While everyone else sees him as rather a sad loser. Someone who will say almost anything to advance his career, failing to perceive the embarrassment he is causing himself. A more able, psychologically healthy person knows when to cut their losses. Understands there are some battles not worth fighting. Chris just crashes and burns. 'The home secretary sounds rather pleased with herself,' the Philpster observed. Pots and kettles. Chris never doesn't sound pleased with himself. Even when he's drowning not waving. But in this he was right. A stopped clock and all that. Yvette did sound pleased with herself. But then who wouldn't, knowing that Philp was your opposite number. He is licensed to fail. Chris carried on mansplaining. The new returns scheme was just a gimmick. What was really needed was a mass deportation scheme. Just like the massively brilliant Rwanda scheme that was on the verge of emptying every hotel for asylum seekers in the country when Rishi Sunak called the last election. Truly, the Philpster is the living embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The effortless rise of the dimerati. It's not at all certain if Chris has yet grasped the link between cause and effect. He concluded by saying that everyone arriving by irregular routes was a potential rapist, before sitting down triumphantly. Forgive him, Lord, for he knows not what he does. This was the moment for which Cooper had been waiting. The bit which makes her job worthwhile. Yes, she has to suck up endless bad news stories about more and more small-boat crossings but on the plus side she gets to take out her feelings on the Philpster. She tried to give Chris a quick reality check. Who had been the immigration minister when the number of irregular migrants had gone up tenfold. Chris put up his hand. He had. Who had been the immigration minister who had promised the home affairs select committee that he was very optimistic about getting a returns deal with France in 2020? Again the Philpster's arm shot up. Who was the immigration minister who had achieved and changed nothing. Up went the arm again. Did he now think it might have been a good idea to have tried treating the French with respect? Now his arm stayed down. You can take a horse to water … The Philpster's humiliation wasn't quite over yet. Next he had to take some incoming from John Glen, one of the very few of his own MPs who had bothered to attend. While wondering if 50 returns per week would do the trick, Glen admitted his own party had completely failed on immigration while in power and that it had deserved to lose the last election because of it. Talk of kicking a man when he's down. Still, to give Chris some credit, at least he bothered to show his face. For an earlier statement by Ed Miliband on the state of climate change and nature, his opposite number, Claire Coutinho, didn't bother. Perhaps she is punchdrunk from a year of always being on the wrong end of Ed's sarcasm. She is the original quarterwit. Someone who can only dream of being a halfwit. Or perhaps, she can no longer bring herself to defend her party's increasingly climate sceptic conspiracy theories. Either way, it's time to put her out of her misery. So it was left to shadow junior minister Andrew Bowie to reply to Miliband's impassioned statement on the need to act urgently to protect the planet. Bowie's answer was to channel his inner Kemi. And Nigel Farage for that matter. Why should we do anything, he said. It probably wasn't going to make any difference so just let the planet burn and flood. There was no point worrying about what might happen in 2050. Just drill, baby, drill. Come the end of the statement there was just one Tory backbencher left in the chamber. This is the party that complains about everyone working from home. Do as I say, not as I do.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
UK to return some small boat migrants to France within weeks
The UK will begin returning migrants arriving in small boats to France within weeks under a new pilot scheme, Sir Keir Starmer has the "one in one out" deal, some arrivals would be detained and returned to France and in exchange the UK would accept an equivalent number of asylum seekers, subject to security checks and provided they had not tried to enter the UK at a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir said the plan would demonstrate that trying to make the Channel crossing would "be in vain".He did not confirm how many people would be returned or accepted during the pilot. Asked if the deal would be big enough to act as an effective deterrent, Sir Keir said the pilot would help "break the model" of the people smugglers, and added that it would be ramped up if it was migrants accepted by the UK would need to have a connection to Britain, such as family a statement released after the press conference, the government said the agreement would be signed "subject to completing prior legal scrutiny in full transparency and understanding with the Commission and EU Member states".Macron said he was "totally committed" to the plans to tackle small boat also said Brexit had made it harder for the UK to tackle illegal migration arguing that the British people were "sold a lie... which is that the problem was Europe".During the press conference, the two leaders also announced that their countries would: co-ordinate their nuclear deterrentsstrengthen collaboration on supercomputers and AI "speed up and accelerate" co-operation on anti-ship missiles. Announcing the small boats pilot, Sir Keir said: "I know some people will still ask, why should we take anyone in - so let me address that directly."We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need."But there is also something else, something more practical which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won't play ball."Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the deal would "only return one in every 17 illegal immigrants arriving"."Allowing 94% of illegal immigrants to stay will make no difference whatsoever and have no deterrent effect."Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the crossings are "a national security emergency" and in a reference to payments made by the UK to support French policing efforts added: "Frankly the French owe us our money back."He said he didn't believe the pilot would work, saying: "If we even try to deport people across the Channel, we will run straight into the European Convention on Human Rights."Both the previous Conservative governments and current Labour one have struggled to stem the numbers coming to the UK in small Conservatives had proposed sending arrivals to Rwanda, however the scheme was delayed by legal challenges and the general election was called before it could be of Sir Keir's first acts as prime minister was to scrap the plan, calling it a said his government would focus instead on tackling the smuggling gangs that organise the have continued to rise, with nearly 20,000 people arriving in the UK in the first half of this year – a 48% increase on the same time period in 2024.
Times
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
UK yet to agree ‘one in, one out' migrant deal with France
Downing Street has yet to agree a 'one in, one out' migrant returns deal with France, days before the initiative is due to be announced. The policy launch was set to be the centrepiece of President Macron's state visit to Britain. Sir Keir Starmer and the French president have been working on a system that would allow the UK to send back to France illegal migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats. In return, Britain would accept migrants with a legitimate case for joining relatives already in the UK. Both sides hope the plan will reduce the pull factor that has led to a record number of people crossing the Channel in small boats this year. However, the plan has been complicated by objections from at least five other European countries, which said they were concerned they could end up having to accept people returned from Britain to the Continent. Five EU countries, including Greece, Malta and Cyprus, wrote to the European Commission late in June objecting to the proposals. They fear that existing EU rules would allow France to deport illegal migrants they receive from the UK back to the first member state they entered. Senior government sources said agreeing the deal with France was 'complex' and 'in the balance'. The source added: 'It is something we want to announce but we're not there yet. The next couple of days will be decisive.' Macron will arrive in London on Tuesday night for a three-day state visit. It will end with a summit at Downing Street on Thursday at which the migration deal is due to be announced. The president is also expected to lay out plans for French police to take a more proactive approach to stopping small boats setting sail for the UK. At the weekend, gendarmes were pictured using jet skis to lay nets in shallow waters off the French coast, which could jam boat propellers. In a separate incident, police slashed one inflatable to prevent it from leaving. The government has repeatedly pushed for French authorities to do more to prevent boats leaving the shore. It has called for changes to allow police officers to intervene when dinghies are in the water. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said France was now using 'important new tactics' that could help to reduce crossings. 'No one should be making these small boat journeys across the Channel, which undermine our border security and put lives at risk,' she said. 'Over the last few months, we have been working together on new ways to crack down on the criminal gang operations, with the French now bringing in important new tactics to stop boats that are in the water. We need to stop at nothing to boost our border security and deliver our plan for change.' There were no crossings on Saturday, according to the Home Office, although more than 500 people made the journey on Friday. The tally has now pushed past 20,000 for 2025, the earliest point this has happened in a calendar year since data was first recorded in 2018. Macron and the prime minister are understood to have discussed the 'one in, one out' plan on Saturday as they attempted to get the initiative over the line. Downing Street said both men 'hoped to make good progress across a wide range of our joint priorities, including migration, growth, defence and security'.
