Forcing back migrant boats not an option, says minister
BRITAIN will not adopt the Italian-style tactic of intercepting migrant boats, a minister has said.
Dame Angela Eagle, the minister for border security, said the UK could not turn back boats without the agreement of France, whose policy is not to intercept the vessels unless migrants ask to be rescued.
The approach has led to French navy and border force vessels shadowing dinghies to the mid-way point in the Channel where they are rescued by UK Border Force and taken to Dover.
The French argue that any interception without the permission of the migrants breaches maritime law because to do so would put their safety at risk. By contrast, the Italians have struck a £90 million deal with Tunisia for its border force and coastguard vessels to turn the boats around and return them to the Tunisian coast.
Asked why Britain’s £490 million agreement with France could not allow the same tactic, Dame Angela told LBC: “The French don’t accept that migrants should always be returned to them. If incidents happen in French territorial waters, they go back to France. If they happen in British territorial waters, we bring them into safety in the UK.”
She said the Government was “looking” at potential prosecutions of the boats’ pilots or facilitators.
Dame Angela said: “There are increasing signs of violence on the beach, as in France, often police are attacked in
‘Meeting with the Italians doesn’t mean we endorse absolutely everything they say or do’
France, and so we’re seeing what we can do to cooperate from a law enforcement point of view to ensure that anyone who behaves violently towards a French officer can be brought to justice.”
Sir Keir Starmer met Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, in Rome on Monday to discuss how her country had reduced the numbers crossing the Mediterranean by more than 60 per cent.
Eight migrants died in the Channel on Sunday when their boat, packed with 60 passengers, hit rocks and sank off the French coast. The number of fatalities this year is now at least 45, compared with 12 all last year. More than 23,000 have crossed the Channel in 448 boats this year.
Dame Angela said the UK would examine whether Italian plans to process asylum seekers in Albania work before deciding on a similar policy.she told Times Radio: “Firstly we don’t know whether it will work yet, because it hasn’t started. Much of this has been portrayed currently as if it’s already a success but the fact is that it hasn’t started.
“We will see how it works. But what we have said is that any scheme that we deal with for offshore processing or anything else has to be workable, it has to be cost effective, and it also has to be in line with international law.”
She said Sir Keir’s meeting with the Italian prime minister should not be taken as an endorsement of all her migration policies. “Meeting with the Italians doesn’t mean we endorse absolutely everything every single Italian member of the government says or does,” she said. “But we are meeting... to see how we can cooperate across border to deal with some of these vile people smuggling gangs.”