British agents bring migrants ashore

U.K.: Refugees crossing Channel from France to be returned

Reuters
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 20:28:47 GMT

DOVER, England — British border agents brought ashore migrants in the port of Dover on Monday after picking them up from an inflatable boat as they crossed the Channel, the latest in a surge of crossings that is causing political tensions with France.

Taking advantage of hot weather and calm sea conditions, more than 500 migrants have reached England since Thursday, many in overloaded rubber dinghies.

A Reuters photographer in Dover saw a Border Force boat arrive carrying a group of migrants wearing life jackets. A blue inflatable dinghy was towed in by a separate vessel.

“What is going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people, taking them across the Channel ... in potentially unseaworthy vessels,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told broadcasters.

“We want to stop that, working with the French.”

The Home Office, or interior ministry, has said it would return as many migrants as possible to France.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of the charity Refugee Action, said the numbers crossing the sea to Britain — about 4,000 so far this year — were tiny in the context of what he described as a global refugee crisis.

“This is serious for the people concerned, but it’s a modest movement by international standards, and it’s certainly something that Britain can cope with,” he told Reuters, contrasting the situation with that of Lebanon, which has a million Syrian refugees.

France received 138,000 asylum applications last year, more than three times the 44,200 that were received by Britain, according to Eurostat.

Many of the migrants seeking to reach Britain come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and countries in Africa, fleeing poverty, persecution, or war. Some stand a chance of being granted asylum, while others are unlikely to be allowed to remain in Britain.

“We need to look at the legal framework that we have, all the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allows them to stay here,” Mr. Johnson said.

Any attempt to change the rules could be complicated by Britain’s exit from the European Union. As things stand, most E.U. accords still apply during a transition period that will end on Dec. 31.

French lawmaker Pierre-Henri Dumont said after that, Britain would no longer be able to send migrants back to E.U. countries.

“That will cause a huge increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the Channel,” he said.

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