Channel migrant crisis is turning into 'a guerrilla war' as shock new milestone approaches
Anger and violence are intensifying along the coastline, locals say, as around 5,000 people have crossed in small boats since Sir Keir moved into Downing Street in July.
The Channel migrant crisis is “turning into a guerrilla war” in northern France, Sir Keir Starmer has been warned.
Anger and violence are intensifying along the coastline, locals say, as around 5,000 people have crossed in small boats since Sir Keir moved into Downing Street in July.
Smugglers are exploiting the Summer weather conditions to traffick people across the Channel, with almost 1,000 arriving in the past week alone.
And Sir Keir is facing intensifying criticism that he is doing “nothing” and that his “actions are merely encouraging the gangs and making them richer.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said: “5,000 people have illegally entered the country since this government was elected. Starmer's list of achievements as Prime Minister continues to outdo expectations. We expected failure, and we are clearly getting it in spades.
“This Government is doing nothing, it claims to want to crack down on trafficking gangs, but its actions are merely encouraging the gangs and making them richer at the expense of ordinary working people in our country.
“5,000 more people, that's 5,000 more people getting free health care, free dentistry, free housing, free bed, free board.
“But none of these things are free.
“Taxpayers have to pay for it. Starmer's Labour has to get a grip.
“The only way to stop this is to turn back the boats and state categorically that nobody who arrives in this country illegally will ever get leave to remain.”
Institute for Economic Affairs Editorial & Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton said: “The Labour Party, like the Conservatives before them, claims to want to stop the small boats. But is their alternative plan – ‘to stop the gangs’ – likely to succeed?
“I fear it will not.
“The reasons why they won’t have to do with the economics of the problem. The ‘supply’ of small boats is not the monopoly of a Bond-style ‘Mr Big’, stroking a cat while he dictates where boats should be launched.
“Given the extraordinarily high profits of this dreadful trade, breaking one or two gangs would have little impact.
“We will see headlines and the government will claim success, but they will be wrong to do so.
“Removing some of the bad guys will mean that would-be migrants will for a while have difficulties finding boats, and the price charged by the remaining bad guys will rise.
“This will increase the returns to the suppliers of boats, and a new bunch of bad guys will enter the market. Back to Square One.”
Dozens more migrants arrived in the UK on Wednesday, adding to the 4,893 who have already arrived under Sir Keir Starmer.
Former Home Secretary James Cleverly also declared that Sir Keir must “get a grip – and fast” or the Channel migrant crisis will only get worse.
He told the Daily Express: "They ditched the Rwanda plan, which had already started to have an effect before we left office and replaced it with nothing. The National Crime Agency had been clear that it was a deterrent we needed.
“Their phantom border command simply isn’t working, because it doesn’t exist. General Stuart Skeates, a highly respected former general in the British Army, who was in large part responsible for delivering the Albania deal which cut small boat arrivals from that country by 90%, has resigned from his position as director general for strategic operations."
But Labour sources hit back at the criticism on Wednesday, saying that the number of crossings over the same period – July 5 to August 14 has seen a reduction.
A source told the Daily Express: “On July 4th, the Tories left the new government the worst start to a year ever for small boat arrivals, 19 per cent up on the year before.
“In the six weeks since the election, Labour has created the new Border Security Command, got returns flights moving again, and put 100 additional caseworkers onto clearing the asylum backlog.
“Where they sat on their hands and made up gimmicks, we are taking concrete action to deal with this problem.”
On Tuesday morning, police were attacked by a large group of migrants, angered by attempts to arrest a suspected people smuggler.
Authorities said the man was carrying life jackets and other pieces of marine equipment used in inflatable migrant boats.
Police mounted simultaneous operations to detain the suspect and prevent a group of 100 migrants nearby from launching their boat.
The mayor of Grande-Fort Phillipe, a popular launching point for smugglers, Sony Clinquart said: "The situation is turning into a guerrilla war.
"People are deeply concerned."
The mayor said that residents were regularly reporting large groups of often hostile young men, hanging around outside their homes.
"There used to be compassion for these people" he said.
"Now there's just a mixture of anger and fear and a desperate need for something to be done."
Police reinforcements have arrived from Lille and Valenciennes to bolster the presence on the ground.
And this follows the “knee-capping” of two migrants bound for Britain.
A French investigative source said the two Sudanese boys – one aged just 16 - were attacked in Calais on Sunday by a group of Afghans.
After being treated in hospital for knee and thigh wounds they refused to cooperate with police and were free to carry on attempting to cross the English Channel.
The 16-year-old was the most seriously injured, with a gunshot wound to a knee.
An investigating source said: “He was shot on a road that runs alongside Calais ferry port on Sunday morning.
“Afghans are thought to have punished him for unknown reasons – perhaps because he owed them money for his sea journey.
“After being released from hospital, the victim was free to carry on trying to get to England."
