Migrants crossing the English Channel from northern France are calling 999 for help “from their own boats”, one of the UK’s most senior police officers has revealed.
The chief constable of Kent Police, Alan Pughsley, told MPs on Tuesday there was a “big difference” between the migrants of the past and those crossing the Channel today.
“They want to be found and helped,” he told parliament’s home affairs committee. “On some occasions, from their own boats they are phoning 999 and asking for our help.”
Border Force were dealing with a boat thought to hold 11 migrants “as we speak”, Pughsley added.
His comments came a day after agents intercepted two small boats containing 15 men off the Kent coast, four of whom were arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry into the UK.
In December, home secretary Sajid Javid declared a “major incident” over the number of people attempting to enter the UK via small boats, calling in the Royal Navy to patrol the Channel.
The committee heard that more than 500 migrants made the journey from northern France in the past year, with 250 making the journey in December 2018 alone.
National Crime Agency director general of operations Steve Rodhouse said the number had fallen to around 90 in both January and February, but that crossings were often dependent on the weather and the recent warm temperatures had led to “more people making that journey”.
“The majority of people who have made the journey are claiming asylum on arrival,” Rodhouse added. “That’s quite significant for us because that represents a very different business model in terms of organised migration crime.”
In the past, if people had been using boats to make the journey across the Channel, they would have been doing so in a “clandestine fashion” in order to avoid being detected by officials.
Now the “business model” involves migrants engaging with UK authorities in order to claim asylum, Rodhouse said, adding that migrants are “overwhelmingly” claiming Iranian citizenship.
Around 75% of people who attempt to enter the UK via the Channel do so with the help of a ‘facilitator’, he added, with the average service costing around £5,000 per person.
But migrants arriving by boat still make up less than 2% of the UK’s “clandestine migrant problem”, he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Today Border Force responded to an incident in the Channel involving a small boat containing 13 people. The group were brought to Dover and have been transferred to immigration officials for interview.
“Anyone crossing the Channel – one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world – is taking a huge risk with their life and those of their children.
“Since the Home Secretary declared a major incident in December we have tripled the number of cutters operating in the Channel, agreed a joint action plan with France and increased activity out of the Joint Coordination and Information Centre in Calais.”