UK's Channel Crossing Problem Originates in Chronic Underfunding & Squabbling With EU, Scholars Say
18:37 GMT 22.07.2022 (Updated: 15:20 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AFP 2023 / BEN STANSALL
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Migrants illegally crossing the English Channel in small boats have been allowed to enter the UK without being subjected to fingerprint or ID checks, with some of them vanishing from asylum hotels after arrival, according to David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI).
"I think that this particular method of migration has taken [everyone] by surprise," says Peter Williams, a senior lecturer with the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. "I understand there's been over 15,000 migrants this year across the channel. And I don't think the authorities have had the resources in order to meet that demand for their services. That's partly been the problem, which has led to corners being cut, i.e. the job not being done properly insofar as the administration of each individual has not been completed to a satisfactory standard which would normally happen, particularly if somebody was going to recognized points of entry, for example, such as an airport."
Individuals who have been crossing the English Channel in small boats are seeking to gain entry to the UK without a visa or permission to enter having been intercepted at sea by the authorities and brought ashore. In 2021, 28,526 illegal migrants arrived on the south coast in small boats, according to Home Office statistics. This constitutes a significant increase from 236 in 2018. Meanwhile, at least 15,000 illegals have crossed the channel in 2022 so far. On July 11 alone, 446 migrants in 15 small vessels were detected heading to the UK, according to the government's data.
What's more, these illegal migrants are vanishing from secure hotels without being biometrically enrolled, according to the latest report by David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI). Thus, 227 migrants absconded from secure hotels between September 2021 and January 2022; some of them had not had their fingerprints and photographs taken.
"Put simply, if we don’t have a record of people coming into the country, then we do not know who is threatened or who is threatening," Neal highlighted. He blamed the "inexcusably awful" record-keeping on a "system failure" because officers were "clearly overwhelmed" by how many migrants were crossing the channel in small boats.
"The strategic objective was primarily to stop the boats from coming at all," says Tony Smith, former head of the UK Border Force and chairman of the International Border Management and Technologies Association (IBMATA). "There was a reluctance to invest in a permanent reception infrastructure in Dover in expectation that ultimately it would become obsolete. However as time passed it became clear that this was going to become a perennial problem so now new investment has been made in Western Jetfoil and Manston to improve reception arrangements."
According to Smith, "systems used for collecting information from migrants replicated those being used elsewhere in immigration enforcement and were not adapted or upgraded to manage specific issues of large numbers of irregular migrants arriving every day with no documents and limited command of English."
He highlights that there is an urgent need to upgrade screening technology as well as access to language services as the numbers of illegal channel-crossings continue to rise.
The lack of equipment and staff actually originate from austerity policies and chronic underfunding, according to Peter Williams.
"Since 2010, like all of the public services in the United Kingdom, they have been subject to austerity, other public services have had more investment at a cost of services such as the Border Force. But all services have been subject to austerity cuts since 2010," the senior lecturer says.
How Could the New British Gov't Solve the Dilemma?
The Cabinet of former UK Prime Minister Boris considered a whole set of measures aimed at halting the growing flow of illegal migrants via the English Channel.
In July 2021, the UK and France concluded a £54 million ($64.8 million) deal to crack down on people smugglers and stop the influx of illegals. However, the deal did not result in any significant progress in tackling the smuggling, as in September 2021, it started to fall apart. In early July 2022, the UK and France came up with a new £50 million ($60 million) deal to tackle illegal channel crossings.
Simultaneously, the BoJo Cabinet pushed ahead with a scheme envisaging sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. The policy prompted a lot of controversy and resistance from human rights groups.
"I think part of the problem has been more migrants - it's migration or illegal immigration, whichever you wish to call it, is subject to push-pull factors," Williams says. "For example, the policy of Rwanda is to remove the pull factor. But primarily, I think the issue has been, perhaps, European-wide in so much that the EU has failed to address the issue of the trafficking groups, the organized crime groups that are clearly behind trafficking these people. That illustrates to me a lack of working together on a wider European front."
Smith appears to hold a similar view: according to him, the UK's failure to agree a safe third country deal with France and the EU contributes to the increase in illegal channel-crossings.
"Migrants know that if they can make it into UK territorial waters they won’t be sent back to France or the EU because those countries won’t take them back," the former head of the UK Border Force says. "Also many of the countries they originate from (Iraq, Iran, and Eritrea) refuse to take their own nationals back even if they are refused asylum in the UK. So the net effect is that they get to stay in the UK regardless of the merits of their claim. This just encourages more to come."
While the Johnson government failed to curb the influx of illegal entries, one might wonder whether the new leadership will be able to fix it.
However, the experts say that this does not depend on the composition of the new Cabinet, but on whether the UK will manage to strike cooperation agreements with the EU and France.
"One of the biggest issues and biggest drawbacks of the United Kingdom is the fact that we're out of Europol and the police services have got no access to Europol's databases and particularly their intelligence systems, which is hampering UK police forces in dealing with the people that are coming across," Williams says.
Furthermore, European governments should embark on a much greater international effort to break up the smuggling gangs in Europe and beyond, who are making huge profits from human misery, Smith underscores.
