The number of illegal entry attempts to the UK between January and June has doubled since the same period last year and is over four times higher than in 2013.
In the first six months of 2014 there were 12,980 stopped illegal entry attempts to the UK, and just 6,238 in 2013. This year figures obtained by the Daily Express show 27,755 stopped illegal entry attempts in the same timescale, reinforcing those critics who say the European Union’s ‘open door policy’ had resulted in an uncontrolled migrant crisis.
Opponents of EU asylum policies predict that as bad as the situation seems, worse is yet to come. UKIP’s spokesman on migration and financial affairs, Steven Woolfe MEP said:
“These numbers show what those of us who regularly travel through key European ports know all too well – Britain is under siege from economic migrants camped along the French and Belgian coasts.
“It is a siege that is going to get far worse over the months and years to come. Given the extraordinary numbers of illegals travelling across the continent from Turkey and Mediterranean entry points, we can be sure the number of attempts to enter Britain will rise inexorably.”
Following the chaos experience on both sides of the Channel throughout summer 2015, Home Secretary Theresa May pledged, alongside the French government, to spend more on policing the border at Calais. Although higher volumes of migrants are certainly a factor in the increase, improved detection may also have played a role.
Having invested in systems at Calais, however, the gang-run people smuggling operations have shifted focus and, as reported previously by Breitbart London, are now trying to work through other ports further along the coast. As Jan Jambon, the Belgian Minister of Security and Home Affairs, said when talking about preventing the appearance of a “second Calais”: “Crime always seeks the path of least resistance.”
For obvious reasons nobody knows how many illegal immigrants escaped detection to reach Britain, but the Express reports estimates putting the “underground” population at 1.1 million.
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