Tory MP Robert Jenrick has said that the UK security services are monitoring migrants who cross the English Channel illegally as a “significant minority have criminal pasts.”
The former Immigration Minister said that the UK must treat the Channel crisis as a “national security emergency.”
Jenrick warned that we know very “little if anything” about the migrants who are illegally entering the UK.
He gave an example of Albanians who are also “breaking into” Britain as they have strong links to the “drug trade in the UK.”
The Tory MP said there is a “significant minority have criminal pasts or are intent on criminal futures.
“I really do think that we have to view this as a national security emergency because we know little, if anything, about these people who are breaking into our country on small boats.
“What we’ve learned is that there is a very significant link between some of them, and serious organized crime. If you look at the Albanians who are coming across, a very strong link, for example, with the drug trade in the UK.
“I can tell you that some of the issues are even more serious than that, and that there are individuals who come across on small boats who are being monitored by our security services every day because they’re deemed to be a risk to our security and would actually do real harm to British citizens.
“That is why we’ve got to take this seriously. That’s why I’ve always advocated for the policy of Rwanda where we actually detain people as soon as they arrive and get them out of the country within days.”
Speaking at an event hosted in Washington DC by the Heritage Foundation, Jenrick said, “The other thing I was very struck by here in the United States, particularly from the Republicans who are seized with this issue is the fact that they, like me, treat this as a national security issue.
“They are very concerned about the number of criminals, those linked to the narcotics trade, serious organized crime and even extremists and terrorists, people coming from countries that are hostile to us and to Western values crossing the border.”
He made reference to what the French do, he said that off the coast in Northern France that have “physical infrastructure, like buoys” and this is the UK should adopt.
Jenrick said, “I think that is something that we should take up now on a much bigger scale with the French putting them in the shallow waters off the beaches of Northern France to stop the boats in a humane way from ever getting into the English Channel.
“As Immigration Minister, I worked with the northern French authorities to create buoy blockades on canals and estuaries that were being used for what’s known as taxi boats, where the people smugglers get people off the shore, gather together groups and then get quickly out into the open sea.
“That was extremely effective and it was one of the most effective interventions we made last year and contributed to the 30% reduction in small boat arrivals in the UK. We need to go much further.
“I think there is appetite for that from our interlocutors in France; they can see it works so let’s get those blockades on more of those estuaries and let’s get them into the shallow waters just off the key beaches. Not in the open dangerous waters, but in the shallow waters so that people can quickly see that they’re not going to be able to get the boats into the English Channel.
“I think that would make a big difference and could be done quickly, most importantly, because time is absolutely of the essence.”
