Another 111 Boat Migrants Land in Britain Despite £28 Million Deal With France

DOVER, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Border Force officials unload migrants, that have been inte
Luke Dray/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Another 111 illegal boat migrants landed on British shores on Monday, a daily record for the number of illegal crossings for the month of December.

Despite Britain agreeing to pay the French another £28 million to step up patrols of the Calais coast, migrants continue to flow across the English Channel.

The previous December daily record was on Boxing day last year, according to The Telegraph, when 49 migrants made the treacherous journey the day after 40 arrived on Christmas day.

BBC reporter Simon Jones said that Clandestine Channel Threat Commander Dan O’Mahoney informed him that French authorities only stopped 35 people from crossing the Channel on Monday.

“We continue to work closely with the French following our agreement to take further action to tackle illegal migration, through increasing police patrols and surveillance,” O’Mahoney said.

The Daily Mail reported that the migrants were brought ashore by the British Border Force cutter Vigilant after being picked up mid-Channel.

At least 5 of the 111 the migrants are believed to be children, with pictures showing a baby without shoes or socks being carried ashore. The children were wrapped in blankets and life jackets, as temperatures hovered around zero degrees celsius at the Port of Dover.

Illegal crossings of the Channel typically slow in December, as rough waters and frigid temperatures make the already dangerous journey more perilous.

In October, a family of five Iranian migrants, including three children, aged nine, six, and 15-months-old, drowned while attempting to sail in a small rubber boat from France.

In August, Sudanese migrant Abdulfatah Hamdallah died after drowning in the Channel, following France reportedly denying him asylum status. Initial reports falsely claimed that the migrant was 16-years-old, however, it was later revealed that he was in fact 28.

A study from the Institute of Race Relations in October found that over the past twenty years 292 illegal migrants have died while attempting to clandestinely reach the UK. The deaths included those who have tried to enter by boat and by vehicles through the tunnel connecting to France.

Of the nearly 300 deaths, some 36 children lost their lives trying to make the journey.

Last month, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said that he, alongside a friend of his, saved two migrants from drowning in the Channel after the migrant boat capsised.

“There is no question they wouldn’t have survived. Even if they hadn’t tipped out, one of them, I would have thought, within an hour or two, would’ve been dead of hypothermia, and probably not much longer for the other guy,” Mr Farage said.

Farage went on to write last week, that the deal between UK and France will not stop the record flows of migrants, arguing the only method that will put a stop to it is to turn back the boats to France, in line with the remarkably successful Operation Sovereign Borders policy in Australia.

Since 2014, some £192 million of British taxpayer money has been sent to France in order to slow the flow of illegal aliens. Yet, migration has continued to increase at a rapid pace, with over four times as many migrants landing in 2020 than the year prior.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here: @KurtZindulka

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