Sajid Javid defends Channel migrant response on visit to Dover

staff reporter(wp/bbc):

Sajid Javid has told migrants thinking of crossing the English Channel not to risk their lives, as he watched the work of border patrol teams off Dover.

The home secretary defended his call to declare a major incident last week, saying there had been a steep increase in the numbers making the journey.

In response, the UK is to step up the number of vessels patrolling the area.

Mr Javid questioned why "genuine" asylum seekers had not sought refuge in France or elsewhere on the continent.

While the UK would process asylum applications in the normal way, he said he wanted to send a "strong message" that economic migrants would not be allowed to illegally settle in the UK.

Twelve migrants were found on the Kent coast last week, bringing the total number of people to have reached the UK by boat since November to 239.

• Reality Check: How many people seek asylum in the UK?
• Border Force vessels return to patrol Channel
• Why are Iranians crossing the Channel in dinghies?

French police said they stopped 14 migrants attempting to cross the channel from Boulogne on Tuesday, the latest in a growing number of people intercepted by the French authorities in the past month.

As part of a joint action plan agreed with France, Mr Javid - who cut short his holiday to deal with the issue - has ordered two UK Border Force boats to be redeployed from overseas to patrol the Channel.

Only one of the five Border Force cutters - specialist boats which the force describes as being capable of rescuing several migrant boats at the same time - had been working in the Straits of Dover.

The two being brought back are currently in the Mediterranean, where they have been taking part in Operation Frontex, the pan-European effort to deal with much larger migration flows from North Africa and the Middle East to Italy and Greece.

Speaking during a trip to the UK's largest port, in which he went out on patrol on HMC Searcher, the home secretary said the intensified operation would "make a big difference" in protecting human life, as well as securing the UK's borders.

He defended escalating the UK's response, saying 80% of the 539 people who had attempted to cross the Channel in small boats in 2018, had done so since October.

"We have seen a real step change in attempts in the last three months," he said.

"People should not be taking this very dangerous journey and, if they do, we also need to send a very strong message that you won't succeed."

The UK, Mr Javid said, would of course consider asylum applications from victims of political or religious persecution in their native countries.

'Concerning'

But he suggested the UK would take a tough line on economic migrants, so as to send a message to the people smugglers who were exploiting them.

"The question has to be asked - if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?

"We need to send a strong message that these gangs preying on you and selling you a false prospectus will not succeed.

"If you somehow do make it to the UK, we will do everything we can to make sure you are ultimately not successful because we need to break the link."

The Refugee Council said Mr Javid's comments were "deeply concerning".

"The outcome of an asylum application cannot be pre-judged before it has been made and must be processed on its individual merit, irrespective of how that person reached the country," Dr Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said.

"Let us not forget that we are talking about people who are in desperate need of protection, having fled countries with prolific human rights abuses."