This is the moment a boat with 50 migrants onboard drifted in the English Channel waiting to be picked up by a UK vessel after being escorted away from the French coast.
The migrants left early this morning, with pictures showing a French naval vessel following it out of the country’s territorial waters. Once the group reached British maritime territory they were picked up by a Border Force patrol boat.
The former head of Border Force has claimed some migrants have begun ‘resisting rescue’ until they reach UK waters, with French officials refusing to intervene unless anyone is in danger.
Tony Smith said the small boats crisis would continue as long as France continued to ‘interpret international law’ in a way that means they do not intercept vessels unless those on board are in trouble.
He told BBC Radio 4: ‘Those on board are not seeking rescue, because then they’ll be taken back to France,’ he said. ‘So there is evidence that people are resisting rescue until such a time as they reach our waters and of course we are duty bound to rescue them.
‘Once they’re on board a British vessel they will claim asylum and that’s been the business model for some time now.’
New figures have revealed a total of 19,073 migrants made the treacherous crossing in 406 dinghies so far in 2023. Last year saw a record 45,755 people make the journey overall, a 60 per cent increase on 2021.
Mr Smith said he had ‘heard stories’ of migrants threatening to scupper their boats if other vessels came near to them – leading to the French deciding to escort the boats until they got to the UK.
He called for a new agreement with France or the EU to create joint patrols that would take migrants back to Calais.
‘There is provision in international law to do that, where two countries could collaborate on joint patrols, we could have our people on their vessels and vice versa,’ he said.
‘But the deal would have to be that the migrants would be taken directly back to Calais.
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