At least 31 migrants illegally crossing the English Channel drowned in French waters yesterday. A tragic event like this was entirely predictable. There have been several migrant deaths in the dangerous waters of the Channel, including three drowning in French waters in two separate incidents earlier this month.

The French government has been intransigent in seriously stopping these packed rubber dinghies embarking on dangerous journeys, even though they are facilitated by the organised crime of people smuggling. The UK government has been gutless to take the serious measures required to remove the incentive for these journeys. In fact, they have been doing the opposite, providing attractive incentives at great cost to UK taxpayers, making the problem worse.

The UK government has failed in its duty of care to protect and enforce UK’s borders for well over two years, and the problem has snowballed - at least tripling each year. In spite of winter approaching, with worsening weather, that snowball continues to grow, as does the risk of unnecessary loss of life.

Both the UK and French governments have escalated the problem by not tackling this law-breaking head-on, and instead hanging back and providing so-called “safe” escort for dinghies recklessly crossing the channel, emboldening criminal traffickers and illegal migrants, giving the migrants a false sense of security about what are in fact extremely perilous voyages, often undetected and therefore without escort.

There has been no real deterrence to people-smugglers whose lucrative criminal activities endanger lives of others on these reckless journeys. Even the UK Home Office has used phrases such as “the business model of people smugglers.” The UK is clearly seen by traffickers for what it is - a soft touch.

In just 11 of the first 20 days of November, 6,059 migrants are known to have arrived on UK shores, making it already the worst month ever recorded for detected illegal crossings of the English Channel in small boats. November has therefore recorded almost THREE TIMES the numbers than were detected for the entirety of the years 2018 and 2019 combined (2,134 arrivals by small boat in the 24-month period) - there is still a week of November to go (and 9 of the first 20 days still awaits confirmation of number of detected illegal arrivals, if any were detected.)

Britain must withdraw from the international instruments that make borders porous and immigration control impossible. Although it is the hallmark of a sovereign state that it can control its entrants, this power has in recent decades

been ceded to globalists, lawyers, and people-smugglers, and Boris Johnson has done nothing to restore this control of UK borders.

UKIP would:

• Withdraw the UK from the UN’s Refugee Convention 1951, which makes borders porous to all migrants, including economic migrants, who claim asylum. This convention was originally intended to resettle displaced Europeans after the War, later adapted as an instrument of Cold War policy is no longer fit for purpose. It is now a fraud on the weak-willed Western world. Decisions on whether to grant asylum should be taken by the UK parliament on an ad hoc basis rather than based on international law.
  
  
• Withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, as these provisions elevate the rights of individuals (particularly migrants and foreign criminals) over the interests of the community and nation. They make it impossible for the nation to control and police its borders.
  
  
• Withdraw from the Global Migration Compact, which when it was approved by the UN in 2018, was rejected by five countries that recognised the importance of national borders: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, and the USA (under Trump). UKIP would add the UK to this list.

You can do two things to help UKIP in its fightback. Firstly, sign our petition to Stop the Migrant Crossings, here:

Secondly, join the fightback by joining UKIP here:

UKIP > Join Online

Don’t leave it to someone else – they are probably leaving it to you.

Steve Unwin

UKIP Home Affairs Spokesman