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MELANIE PHILLIPS

Britain has lost the plot on migrant crossings

People with no right to asylum, packed on to boats by traffickers, must be sent back to France

The Times

With Britain’s attention distracted by the virus emergency, migrants have been redoubling their efforts to breach the country’s border defences by arriving in small boats from across the Channel.

Their numbers have now reached record levels. At least 1,085 migrants have arrived on British shores since lockdown started, compared with 1,890 for the whole of 2019. During one day this month, 130 were intercepted trying to enter the country by this route.

Many are from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan and Iran. They are crammed into often leaky boats by people smugglers, with some migrants paying up to £12,000 for the voyage. Rising numbers of unaccompanied children in these boats have fuelled suspicion that the intention is to traffic them into modern slavery.

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