Channel migrant crossings resume after more than three weeks of bad weather

Right · 1Hundreds of migrants were reported to be crossing the English Channel on Thursday 29 October, the first crossings in more than three weeks, after stormy conditions cleared overnight, according to GB News. 1 Right · 2The last successful crossings before that were on 7 October, when 119 migrants arrived on two large dinghies; GB News said around 150 people had crossed or were crossing, with smuggling gangs also trying to launch from other points on the French coast. 1 2 Right · 2Just after 8am the Border Security Command vessel Contender brought the first group, taken from a dinghy in mid-Channel, into Dover Harbour. GB News counted 72 people, mostly young men, who were taken to a nearby processing facility for health and security checks. 1 2

Right · 1More than 80 others were on a so-called taxi boat, a large dinghy thought to have launched from a Belgian beach, which picked up more people near Dunkirk. GB News said the weather window was due to close again the next day. 1 Right · 1GB News put the year's total at more than 21,000 crossings, over 46 per cent lower than at the same point last year. 1 Right · 1Labour says its partnership with France and extra beach patrols explain the fall. GB News cited maritime security sources who said the picture is more complex and that a year of poor Channel weather has also played a part. 1

Right · 1GB News's Home and Security Editor Mark White said on air that the government's payment of £662 million to France for beach patrols was partly responsible for the reduction, but that weather was a significant factor, since winds above about 12mph in the wrong direction make crossings almost impossible. 2 Right · 1Smuggling gangs have recently moved launches further west along the French coast to avoid heavier policing around Dunkirk and Calais, GB News reported. 1 Right · 1Border Security Commander Duncan Sparks told the Commons Home Affairs Committee last week that about 4,000 migrants were in the two main camps in northern France, roughly double the typical number. He said this was bad in one respect but also showed French authorities were making crossings very difficult around Dunkirk and Calais. 1

Right · 1Chancellor John Healey, after his Budget the previous day, told GB News Labour was doing "a good job on migration" and that a "small handful" of migrant camps would be opened around the UK. GB News said the plan would cost £150 million next year, with more asylum hotels closing. 1 Right · 1The Daily Express presented GB News's breaking-news coverage from Dover as a setback for Prime Minister Andy Burnham, recalling that last month he promised "no complacency" in the crackdown on smuggling gangs. 2