UK Looks to Detain ALL Male Migrants Crossing the English Channel: Report

DOVER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 17: A migrant (L) arrives at the Port of Dover after being interc
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Peter Caddle

The UK is said to be looking at detaining all male migrants intercepted while crossing the English Channel under plans being drawn up by the government.

While migrants who successfully land on English soil are in breach of the law, and as such can be detained, authorities do not currently have the same powers regarding those intercepted during the crossing by the Border Force, which counts for the majority of illegal boat migrants.

However, this may soon change, with a plan drawn up by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel outlining a future where all single male migrants caught crossing the Channel will also be detained, according to a report by The Times.

Patel is also reportedly working closely with the Attorney General of England and Wales to establish what current laws such migrants could be detained under, and what new powers are needed.

The Nationality and Borders Bill currently going through parliament is set to make crossing the English Channel without prior clearance to enter the UK an offence punishable by up to four years in prison as well.

Also being considered by the British government are plans to outsource asylum claims to third party countries, such as Rwanda. The UK is also seeking to build bilateral migrant return agreements with nations such as France, though previous attempts by the British government to do this have been outright rejected in the past.

One government official told The Times that ministers believe that making the UK less attractive to migrants is the best way of reducing the number of people crossing the Channel.

“They’re convinced this is the way to create a deterrent,” the source said. “Their thinking is ‘you make it worse and worse, more draconian and it’ll stop people coming’. They’re absolutely convinced that tough deterrents are the way to fix it.”

Others have also previously criticised how attractive the UK is to would-be migrants, with the French in particular heaping blame on Britain for the crisis which saw over 28,000 illegals land on UK shores last year.

France’s Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, lambasted the British government last year, saying that migrants were being “attracted by England, especially the labour market which means you can work in England without any identification”.

“Britain must take its responsibility and limit its economic attractiveness,” the minister said.

Arch Brexiteer Nigel Farage has also slammed how attractive the UK is to migrants, saying that it wouldn’t matter if you put “20,000 police on the beaches in France” because of the pull factors present in Britain.

“I think it is possible that by the spring or summer of [2022] this will become a national emergency,” Farage said. “I think the numbers that will come will dwarf what you are currently seeing. I’ve not been wrong on a single prediction on this.”

Farage’s warning was followed by a subsequent report that up to 65,000 migrants could make the crossing in 2022, though the Brexiteer has said that it could be even higher.

Boris Johnson’s government has since announced that the Royal Navy would be put in charge of operations in the Channel in the hopes of stemming the tide, but this has not in any way assuaged Farage’s fears.

“Using the Royal Navy to ferry migrants into Dover is a waste of military resources and a more expensive taxi service than border force,” the ex-Brexit Party leader told Breitbart London, saying that the move effectively meant making the navy an “expensive taxi service”.

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