More migrants cross the Channel today after 27 drowned

This is the first picture of the doomed dinghy that deflated just off Calais yesterday killing 27 people on board as French police again failed to stop 50 migrants crossing the Channel to Britain today.

The ‘flimsy’ and ‘very frail’ grey inflatable boat was photographed by a lifeboat captain who arrived to find bodies floating in the water off Calais yesterday afternoon in the worst migrant tragedy in Anglo-French history.

Two survivors – an Iraqi and a Somalian – have told police their poorly made dinghy was hit by a container ship, puncturing its thin rubber hull and taking dozens of lives.

Five people have been arrested in France over the 27 deaths, including one man held overnight driving a German-registered vehicle packed with inflatable ribs, although there is ‘no provable link’ with the sinking, according to prosecutors, despite French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin insisting all were ‘directly linked’ to the drownings.

And as Emmanuel Macron was urged to get a grip, French police again failed to stop a group of around asylum seekers crossing the Channel on two boats in choppy conditions this morning. They were brought shivering into a freezing Dover by the RNLI at dawn.

Small groups of officers were seen patrolling beaches close to Calais this morning but again failed to prevent dozens setting off for the UK in dinghies amid claims in Britain that the French have been sitting on their hands as 17 men, seven women – one of whom was pregnant – and three children died yesterday.

Boris Johnson, Mr Macron and their ministers are expected to hold more talks today as the Prime Minister insisted that British boots are needed on the ground in France to stop evil slave gangs ‘getting away with murder’. 

As relations between the UK and France become increasingly fraught, Macron’s minister in charge of the crisis, Gerald Darmanin, today blamed Britain for the crisis and claimed migrants are promised ‘Eldorado in England’ by people traffickers because of its suite of benefits and ‘attractive’ labour market.

Mr Macron is said to have ignored the renewed offer for help with patrols during his call with the PM last night with the French President, who insists he won’t let the Channel to ‘be turned into a cemetery’, again accused by critics of allowing a bitterness over Brexit for his failure to tackle migrant traffickers.

Speaking on a trip to Croatia this morning, Macron hit back at critics claiming France is not doing enough. He said police have been ‘working day and night’ since the start of the crisis to stop boats – and have ‘never had more’ officers patrolling the coast. He said ‘our mobilisation is total as far as I’m concerned’. 

French interior minister Mr Darmanin is expected to speak to his counterpart, Home Secretary Priti Patel, this afternoon. 

He said: ‘It is Britain’s attractiveness which is to blame, including its labour market. Everybody knows that there are up to 1.2 million clandestine migrants in the UK and English business leaders use that workforce to produce things that are consumed by the English’. 

He told French radio network RTL that the smugglers are ‘criminals, people who exploit the misery of others, of women and children – there were pregnant women, children who died yesterday on that boat… and for a few thousand euros they promise them ‘Eldorado in England’.  

As the blame game between Britain and France continues, it also emerged today:

• Government ministers were expected to give a statement to Parliament today on the crisis. Boris Johnson and Priti Patel will hold talks with French ministers;
• Britain will again offer to send police, border staff and even the Army to beaches in northern France but Macron is expected to resist for political and legal reasons;
• Boss of the port of Calais says Britain must stump up more cash to help with searches for migrants trying to cross;
• The deadly boat tragedy triggered an outpouring of anger in France with the Mayor of Calais blasting Mr Macron’s government for failing to tackle the ‘mafia style’ smuggling gangs;
• Calais’s MP said that migrants must be moved from Calais to the middle of France even if force was necessary, to try to stop the crossings; 
• French police have arrested a fifth alleged ringleader of people trafficking gang charging £3,300 for a space on a death trap boat. But prosecutors believe there is no ‘provable link’ between them and the tragedy off Calais;

More people making the perilous journey across the Channel have been brought ashore in the UK following the deadliest day of the current migrant crisis.

A group wearing life jackets and wrapped in blankets were seen huddled together on board an RNLI lifeboat before disembarking in Dover on Thursday morning, just a day after a dinghy capsized off the coast of Calais, causing the loss of dozens of lives.

Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont has said Macron must reject Britain’s offer of boots on the ground in France, saying: ‘That wouldn’t work. It would require thousands of people. And there is also a question of sovereignty. I’m not sure the British people would accept the other way round if the French army was patrolling the British shore’.

Officials today demanded even more money from the UK taxpayer to stem the flow of thousands of migrants across the Channel each month as the blame game between Paris and London over the deaths of 27 people.  

As 6,000 crossed to Britain in November alone, the boss of the ports of Calais and Boulogne has insisted that Britain must start paying more on top of the £54million they give to France each year to stop people getting there by dinghy or hidden in lorries. 

Jean-Marc Puissesseau said: ‘We are obliged to control each lorry to make sure there are no migrants inside. We do it for not a penny. It is gratis for your country, it costs the Port of Calais, 8 million (euros) a year to control and I want that to be discussed again with your government. That was signed when the UK was in the Europe and has no place’. 

Natacha Bouchart, the Mayor of Calais, blamed attractive benefits in Britain for the crisis. She said: ‘I say that enough is enough. The British government has imposed immigration control on our territory for the last 20 years. It has never had the courage to control this immigration back home. You have to react, react quickly to make it all stop.’   

Ahead of talks with Home Secretary Priti Patel, French interior minister Mr Darmanin said the loss of 27 lives was an ‘absolute tragedy’ as he blamed human trafficking gangs who promised people the ‘El Dorado of England’ for a large fee.

He told French radio network RTL that since the start of the year, police and rescuers there have saved 7,800 people in French waters in the Channel.

The minister did not have further information about the circumstances of the boat’s capsizing, or the victims’ nationalities, but said the two survivors were Somali and Iraqi and had been treated for severe hypothermia.

The politician again pointed the finger of blame at human trafficking gangs, saying they are ‘criminals, people who exploit the misery of others, of women and children – there were pregnant women, children who died yesterday on that boat… and for a few thousand euros they promise them ‘Eldorado in England’. ‘And sadly, this has been repeated every day for the last 20 years’.

Four alleged people smugglers thought to be connected with the disaster were arrested by police north of Dunkirk, near the France-Belgian border, on Wednesday evening after tragedy struck shortly around 2pm.

Five women and a girl were believed to be among the casualties, with the disaster coming just hours of French police sat and watched boats leave their shore. 

An ‘overloaded’ boat capsized in rough seas amid rain and cold weather and was found by fishermen, with three coastguard vessels and a helicopter rushed to the scene.  

The 27 deaths are the biggest single-day loss of life from migrant crossings in the Channel, with the previous grim record believed to be a family of five Kurdish-Iranians who drowned in October last year. Before the accident, a total of 14 people had drowned this year trying to make it to Britain. 

Mr Johnson chaired an emergency Cobra meeting on Wednesday afternoon as a search and rescue effort continued after the disaster amid anger from Tory MPs over soaring numbers of migrant crossings from France – with nearly 27,000 landing on the south coast this year.

Meanwhile, the French President also called for an emergency meeting of European ministers, the BBC reported, as he vowed: ‘France will not let the Channel become a cemetery.’ Mr Macron later urged Mr Johnson in a phone call to stop Britain’s politicisation of migrant flows for domestic gain, the Elysee Palace said. 

But migrants in Calais insist they will try again despite the risk they may die. 

Ali, 23, is also from Iraq. He said he has been in France for more than a month, adding: ‘There’s people here from Turkey, Belarus.

‘We don’t have a life. We want to live like you in the UK.

‘You only have one life. People are trying and they die or have a chance to get past (the Channel.)

Speaking about Wednesday’s deaths, he said: ‘They had no chance to pass, but we maybe do.’

A group of men were found sheltering across from a supermarket in Grande-Synthe.

Shivan, 22, told the PA news agency he had gone to France from Iraq. He said he has no living family and added: ‘We are waiting for our transport. No one has told us when we will be collected.

‘We wait and people come and go. We don’t have anywhere, so just sleep here.’

Shivan said he wants to go to the UK because there is a ‘better life.’

He said: ‘We just want to live. We’re not scared to cross; it’s better to cross. To get to the UK it’s about 15,000 euro. Maybe some people can get there for 2,000 euros, it depends.’

He said he found his way to France by ‘asking people’ in Turkey.

The beaches north of Wimereux near Calais which has been repeatedly used as a launching point for migrant boats in recent weeks, were quiet this morning with no boats being launched.

It is believed that people smugglers were put off mainly by strong northerly winds which would have been whipping up waves out to sea, although the sea appeared calm from the beach.

The beaches were patrolled throughout last night by teams of French police who searched the sand dunes with powerful torches.

The officers were also seen driving up and down neighbouring sandy beaches in a VW pick up truck, equipped with floodlights.

Officers in the same truck were filmed standing an watching earlier yesterday as a large group of migrants carried their inflatable on to a beach and launched into the sea.

Two French Navy patrol boats called Abeille Languedoc and Aramis patrolled around two miles off shore as dawn broke.

A local resident who was walking on the beach said: ‘I heard from some officers that they wanted to stop boats today after all the people died.’

MailOnline found the remains of one 40ft long boat abandoned halfway down a cliff after it apparently deflated while being carried towards the beach.

Lying inside it was an instruction manual written in English for a 2 stroke outboard engine, raising the possibility that engines for migrant boats might have been shipped from UK suppliers

The heavily waterlogged 34 page manual included full instructions and tips on operating T series engines made by a variety of manufacturers, as well as questions and answers for tackling faults.

The engine which would have been attached to a wooden block at the rear of the boat had been salvaged, possibly to be used on another trip.

The wrecked boat with plywood floor panels was of a similar type to the black inflatable boats which MailOnline saw being launched from the same beaches near Wimereux last week.

Boat manufacturers in the UK say that that the huge inflatables have no commercial purpose other than for transporting migrants, and have speculated that they are being illicitly made to order in China for people smuggling gangs.

Downing Street said the two leaders later spoke and agreed on the need to urgently step up efforts to tackle the problem and to ‘keep all options on the table’.

Mr Johnson then made a renewed offer of hundreds of British ‘boots on the ground’ to his French counterpart, but a diplomatic source said Mr Macron gave no immediate reaction.

The group of 34 migrants had set off aboard an inflatable described by Mr Darmanin as ‘very frail – like a pool you blow up in your garden’. There were reports that it might have been hit by a large vessel, possibly a container ship.

Mr Johnson said on Wednesday he was ‘shocked and appalled’ and that action to address the crisis must now follow.

‘What this shows is that the gangs who are sending people to sea in these dangerous crafts will literally stop at nothing,’ the Prime Minister said.

‘But what I’m afraid it also shows is that the operation that is being conducted by our friends on the beaches, supported … with £54million from the UK to help patrol the beaches, the technical support we’ve been giving, they haven’t been enough.

‘Our offer is to increase our support but also to work together with our partners … on the launching grounds for these boats. That’s something I hope will be acceptable now in view of what has happened.

‘I say to our partners now is the time for us all to step up, to work together, to do everything we can to break these gangs who are literally getting away with murder.’

The nationalities of the victims are not known but one charity told the Times they were Kurdish. 

A Government source said the PM would re-table the offer to send British law enforcement officers to help patrol French territory. 

The UK is willing to deploy potentially hundreds of personnel to France, probably drawn from police and Border Force ranks. If an agreement can be struck they could be on the ground as soon as next month.

A similar offer was previously rejected by Paris, with French ministers bridling at the prospect of British police operating in their country.

‘We are not seeing enough action by the French to stop boats leaving these beaches,’ the source said. ‘We have offered to send personnel to help. The French have said that is difficult for sovereignty reasons, which is understandable. But the PM will be asking President Macron to think again. It is now unfortunately a humanitarian issue. We simply cannot let people leave those beaches this winter.’ 

Following last nights call between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said: ‘There was nothing concrete. At this stage it was mainly agreement on the urgency of stepping up joint efforts to stop the crossings, and working closely with other EU countries.’ 

Immigration compliance minister Tom Pursglove confirmed that Mr Johnson had renewed a previous offer to send UK police and Border Force officers to mount joint patrols with the French. 

Mr Pursglove said, however, the last incident showed the two countries needed to deepen their co-operation in dealing with the issue.

‘The Prime Minister and President Macron have had exactly that discussion this evening. That is something that I am very keen to see happen,’ he told BBC2’s Newsnight.

‘It is the case that in the past we have offered to host and to help with joint patrols. I think that could be invaluable in helping to address this issue. I really do hope that the French will reconsider that offer.’

The former Director General of the Border Force Tony Smith said it was ‘tragic’ that Britain and France had failed to reach a workable agreement to end the crossings and prevent such a disaster. 

‘We can stop this at source if we work together,’ he said. ‘That’s perfectly feasible. The French don’t take that view. They are not saving lives. They are basically allowing unsafe boats to sail off into territorial waters which is their responsibility. For me it is squarely on the shoulders of the French.’ 

French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter enquiry over the deadly crossing, thought to have been organised by a criminal gang who – if caught – face charges of ‘manslaughter’ and ‘assistance with illegal immigration in an organised gang’. Two of the four arrested suspects appeared in court late on Wednesday.   

Just hours before the accident, pictures taken on a beach near Wimereux, a few miles north of Boulogne-sur-Mer, showed a group of 40 migrants pushing dinghies out to sea watched by police who seemingly did nothing to stop them. The boats were later pictured arriving in the UK, meaning they are not the same as the one that capsized. 

MP for Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont branded the Channel ‘the new Mediterranean Sea’ and said it was ‘like an open sky graveyard.’ He said migrants should be moved from Calais to the middle of France – even if by force – because they will continue to try to cross the English Channel as long as they are on the coast.   

Dover fishing skipper Matt Cocker said he heard the mayday call from a French ship to the coastguard which reported at leat 15 bodies in the water. He said: ‘The scenes must have been desperate. Awful. Picking bodies out of the water for anyone is the end of things and you don’t want to be doing it.’

Another fisherman, Paul, 59, said he was ‘sad’ but not ‘shocked’. ‘I saw lots of people here today, of all nationalities but I don’t know which were the ones that drowned.’

Captain of the Calais-based lifeboat Charles Devos said his crew recovered six bodies and warned ‘I always thought that one day they would collide with a container ship or a ferry. I always said this would end in a tragedy and unfortunately it has.’ 

Migrants in Calais last night said they were shocked but were ‘still planning to go the UK.’ Iranian Ali Ahmadin, 25, said: ‘We have been here a month waiting and we will carry on. We have come a long way and will not give up.’ 

Meanwhile his friend Mohammad Sadi, 39, pleaded for help. ‘It is freezing here and we are desperate’, he told the Sun. ‘We still want to travel and I need some shoes, please.’   

Mr Johnson told broadcasters this evening: ‘This disaster underscores how dangerous it is to cross the channel in this way, and it also shows how vital it is that we step up our efforts to break the business model of the gangsters who are sending people to sea in this way.

‘That is why it is so important that we accelerate if we possibly can all the measures contained in our Borders and Nationalities Bill so we distinguish between people who come here legally and people who come here illegally, but that we also use every power that we can – we leave no stone unturned – to demolish the business proposition of the human traffickers and the gangsters.’ 

‘And, of course, we have to work with our French friends, with our European partners, and I say to our partners across the Channel, now is the time for us all to step up, to work together, to do everything we can to break these gangs who are literally getting away with murder.

‘What this shows is that the gangs who are sending people to sea in these dangerous craft will literally stop at nothing. But what, I’m afraid, it also shows is that the operation that’s being conducted by our friends on the beaches, supported as you know with £54 million from the UK to help patrol the beaches, all the technical support that we’ve been giving, they haven’t been enough.

‘Our offer is to increase our support, but also to work together with our partners on the beaches concerned, on the launching grounds for these boats.

‘And that’s something I hope that will be acceptable now, in view of what has happened, because there is no doubt at all that the gangs concerned, unless they are shown that their business model won’t work, that they can’t simply get people over the Channel from France to the UK, they will continue to deceive people, to put people’s lives at risk and, as I say, to get away with murder.

‘We’ve had difficulties persuading some of our partners, particularly the French, to do things in a way that we think the situation deserves, but I understand the difficulties that all countries, that all countries face, but what we want now is to do more together. And that’s the offer that we’re making.’

Around 20 rescue vehicles were seen at the Paul-Devot quay in Calais on Wednesday evening, where bodies were being brought ashore. 

The tragedy was discovered after fishermen saw two two small dinghies earlier on Wednesday, one with people on board and another empty. Fisherman Nicolas Margolle said another fisherman had called rescue services after seeing an empty dinghy and 15 people floating motionless nearby, either unconscious or dead.

More migrants left France’s northern shores than usual to take advantage of calm sea conditions on Wednesday, according to fishermen, although the water was bitterly cold. 

Mr Darmanin told reporters: ‘1,500 people have been arrested since the start of January, and four of them today. We suspect that they were directly linked to this particular crossing.’ 

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the deaths were the ‘starkest possible reminder’ of the dangers of the crossing. She tweeted: ‘My thoughts are with the families of all of those who have tragically lost their lives in French waters today. It serves as the starkest possible reminder of the dangers of these Channel crossings organised by ruthless criminal gangs.

‘It is why this Government’s New Plan for Immigration will overhaul our broken asylum system and address many of the long-standing pull factors encouraging migrants to make the perilous journey from France to the United Kingdom.’ 

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was an ‘utter tragedy’ and urged the Government to work with French authorities to provide safe routes for those seeking sanctuary.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke told MailOnline that the French must now act to stop more loss of life. ‘This is an absolute tragedy. It underlines why saving lives at sea starts by stopping the boats entering the water in the first place,’ the Tory MP said.

‘As Winter is approaching the seas will get rougher, the water colder, the risk of even more lives tragically being lost greater. That’s why stopping these dangerous crossings is the humanitarian and right thing to do.’ 

President and Chairman of the ports of Calais and Boulogne Jean-Marc Puissesseau told BBC News the UK and the European Union must work together to find a solution to migrant boat crossings, adding: ‘Even if the sea is not looking so rough, in the middle (of the English Channel) there are always many waves. It is dangerous.

‘That can happen again because they try everything to get to your country. That’s why I am very upset. I don’t know what to do.’

He accused people smugglers of being ‘murderers’, adding: ‘The poor migrants who have spent months and months to come to here, and who die so close to their dream… I don’t know what to do really.’ 

French prime minister Jean Castex spoke of a ‘terrible tragedy,’ adding: ‘My thoughts are with the many missing and wounded, victims of criminal smugglers who exploit their distress and their misery.’    

Earlier officers apparently made no attempt to stop a group migrants, which included at least five children, despite the French government vowing a crackdown just yesterday. 

The vow was made as the French attempted to explain how £9million of British money, part of a £54million deal to stop the migrants, has been spent as crossing soared to record levels.  

Fellow Kent MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline the tragedy ‘was both foreseeable and avoidable’. ‘Earlier today French police were photographed standing idly by whilst another dinghy was launched headed for Dover. This raises many questions of the French authorities – was this another dinghy to which a blind eye was turned; where were French border force vessels and SNSM [the French equivalent of the RNLI].  

‘My call is for France to properly prevent beach launchings and if they’re incapable of doing so then ask for UK assistance. My fear is this will be the first of many tragedies across the winter period. This dangerous enterprise must be stopped.’

He added: ‘Promises by the French authorities to do all they can to prevent beach launchings are beyond wearing thin. The French have refused on-site help from UK Border Force and troops, they refuse to implement their own EU obligations under the Dublin Accords, they refuse to manage the pull factor of the Pas de Calais region.

‘Their agenda, in advance of their Presidential elections, is now obvious – to destabilise British politics and are now straying into breaches of international border agreements. Whilst we could obviously do more domestically to speed up deportations, the true blame for this crisis must be directed to wilful failures across the channel.’  

Meanwhile Labour Leader Keir Starmer said: ‘For lives to be lost in such dangerous and desperate circumstances is a devastating and heartbreaking tragedy. The UK Government, France and the wider international community have a duty to prevent people from being forced into such peril.’ 

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage was today filming in the Channel with GB News days after he confirmed he was considering a return to frontline British politics as he accused the Government of failing to ‘get a grip’ of migrant Channel crossings. 

Tory MP for Folkestone and Hythe Damian Collins said: ‘The deaths today of migrants in the Channel is an avoidable tragedy. We must stop these crossings and crack down on the criminal gangs that profit from them. We have to show that the crossings are futile and will not lead to a permanent right to stay in the UK.’   

Jonathan Gullis, Tory MP for Stoke on Trent North, said: ‘This a terrible human tragedy, my thoughts are foremost with those involved.

‘The simple truth is that France is a safe country therefore people should not be making this journey.

‘For too long Macron has used this issue as a political football and the result is that many people have lost their lives. This must stop now. The french authorities have to now take responsibility for policing their own border or more lives will sadly be lost.’ 

Pierre Roques, coordinator of the Auberge des Migrants NGO in Calais, said the Channel risked becoming as deadly for migrants as the Mediterranean which has seen a much heavier toll over the last years of migrants crossing. 

‘People are dying in the Channel, which is becoming a cemetery. And as England is right opposite, people will continue to cross.’

Calais MP Mr Dumont said:  ‘My message to the French authorities, which I said to them a few minutes ago, is that we need to understand that if the migrant is in Calais – or around the Channel – they will try to cross the Channel. We need to move them, even if by force, to health centres in the middle of France.’      

It comes against the backdrop of worsening relations between the UK and France over post-Brexit fishing licences in the Channel, and the AUKUS submarine pact with saw Australia tear up a billion-dollar French contract in favour of signing a new deal with Britain and America.

Amid the worsening relations, almost 27,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year – far eclipsing the roughly 8,000 who came in 2020 and 1,000 who arrived in 2019.

More than 6,050 have made the journey in November so-far, the most ever in a single month, and the surge shows no sign of slowing down.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: ‘This is a humanitarian disaster that should never have happened. It’s incomprehensible that so many lives have been lost by people on a desperate and harrowing journey to Britain who were just trying to find safety.

‘Surely a tragedy of this magnitude is the wake up call our Government needs to change its approach and finally commit to an expansion of safe routes for those men, women and children in desperate need of protection. How many more lives must be lost before we finally end the cruel and dangerous tactic of seeking to punish or push away those who try and find safety in our country.’

Tom Davies, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights campaign manager, said the charity was ‘deeply saddened by the loss of these lives’, adding: ‘How many more times must we see people lose their life trying to reach safety in the UK because of the woeful lack of safe means to do so?

‘We desperately need a new approach to asylum – including genuine Anglo-French efforts to devise safe asylum routes to avoid such tragedies happening again.’ 

French officials revealed details for the first time of how they have spent £9million from the British taxpayer, agreed as part of a £54million deal in the summer.    

A spokesman for the interior ministry said: ‘More than 100 mobile vehicles are being delivered on the ground for patrols and arrests, with equipment adapted to the specific nature of the terrain.’ 

Specialist kit would include quad bikes, 4x4s, rigid-hulled boats and ‘vehicles equipped with sophisticated monitoring and detection equipment’. The spokesman said: ‘Twenty vehicles have already been delivered and are being used by the forces on a daily basis. The others will arrive in December and over the course of 2022.’

But the French did not announce any extra personnel.

During the last major Channel surge – which saw the ‘Jungle’ camp spring up near Calais in 2015 – France sent in 3,500 officers from its mobile police unit, the CRS. Just a couple of hundred reservist gendarmes are currently deployed.

UK officials believe the shortfall has left the French struggling to deal with the massive numbers pushed through by organised crime gangs.

Yesterday France said British cash will also be spent on ‘high-performance night-vision equipment’ and thermal cameras.

‘Specially adapted clothing’, searchlights, interception and communication equipment and torches have also been bought.

Reminiscent of the defensive line built in the 1930s to deter a German invasion, named after France’s minister of war Andre Maginot, the equipment will be used to ‘secure the coastal strip stretching for more than 130km [100 miles], from the Dunkirk area to the Bay of the Somme’.

The spokesman added: ‘As part of the fight against illegal immigration along the Channel coast, and in order to safeguard the lives of people often in distress, the ministry of the interior is deploying its security forces day and night to monitor the coastline, prevent makeshift boats from leaving for Britain, and arrest people smugglers.’

A British government source said: ‘We are pleased that the French are now doing this work to help reduce these despicable crossings.’

Last week Home Secretary Priti Patel blamed the EU’s free movement policy for allowing thousands of migrants to sweep across the Continent to France and urged a cross-Europe attempt to tackle the problem.

However, France has rejected British proposals to allow UK officers to work on the other side of the Channel to detect people-smuggling operations.  

Mr Dumont said that France cannot accept the UK’s offer due to ‘the question of sovereignty’.

‘I heard Priti Patel’s comments yesterday claiming that she offered France British troops – that is not possible because of the question of sovereignty,’ he said. ‘But if the soldiers and patrols are in Calais with the migrants they will still find a way to cross, because you cannot monitor 200km of shore at the same time.

Six out of ten migrants arrive in France only on the day they attempt to cross – arriving from Belgium and the Netherlands.

People smugglers are charging more than £3,300 per head to make a Channel crossing, according to latest intelligence.

Source: DailyMail