Over 120 migrants have crossed the English Channel today Wednesday, the first for over a week following bad weather despite almost 2,300 small boat migrants crossing the Channel over the previous 10 days, making a mockery of Come Here Kier’s campaign of Smash the Boat Gangs. This arises as the undeterred people smugglers took advantage of a break in the bad weather to launch multiple small boats and forced authorities to carry out rescues in French waters
Despite this, two small boat loads also arrived illegally in British waters this morning, with another two still in French waters and making steady progress towards the UK, prompting comments of “We had better surveillance of the coast during World War 2”.
In addition, dozens more were rescued when their small boats got into difficulties in French waters requiring rescue by UK vessels as French boats kept a distance because a French rescue would mean returning the migrants to France. One French boat had to intervene after a migrant suffered a cardiac arrest on a very overcrowded vessel and was taken to waiting emergency services in Boulogne.
It is thought that the victim was crushed into unconsciousness and cardiac arrest on a vastly overcrowded boat as a result of increasing numbers of small boats putting to sea with 100 onboard, rather than the usual 60. (There are boats designed for 8 to 12 people). Maritime security personnel have suggested that African migrants who do not want to pay people smuggling gang are rushing boats as they’re being launched from French beaches and clambering onboard).
Incompetent, ill-conceived, idiotic and hopeless…it’s more Border Farce than Border Force!
A member of Border Force Personnel (wishing to remain anonymous) 17th March 2025
A maritime security specialist who has been in France observing the inaction by the French Police said:
“It is only a matter of time, if this continues, before bodies start washing up on the beaches of France and the south coast of England due to sinkings because of the extreme overcrowding of the boats. These African migrants don’t care, they just force their way on through brute force regardless of the additional risk this poses to everybody on the boat. It’s violent and the French authorities know and have seen stabbings and broken bones on a regular basis but are ignoring it because they don’t want the migrants either. We’re seeing so many incidents of people either falling overboard or being crushed to death.”
Border Force vessel “Typhoon” rescued and landed 65 migrants at Dover shortly after 9am and returned to continue the taxi service for migrants. This was followed by Border Force taxi vessel “Ranger” just two hours later, with 53 young men.
Arrivals today 19th March 2025 now exceed 4,500 since 1st January 2025, evidencing that the Labour government’s border security policy has plunged into deeper crisis, as even Labour MPs are calling for change as the numbers crossing the Channel continue to hit record levels. There are growing calls on the government by Labour MPs to introduce a deterrent scheme, similar to the previous government’s Rwanda policy, even though this was scrapped by Sir Keir Starmer on his first day in office branding it a “gimmick” and introducing a new Border Security Command which is now considered to effectively be a taxi service for crossing migrants, despite being given millions of pounds of extra funding.
Eight months after Labout came to power, the number of migrants crossing the Channel appears on course to overtake the more than 36,800 who crossed last year, already a record. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security…..The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay. We will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.”