The Marine Traffic app is an essential download for all those who scan the Dover shoreline for signs of small boats – everyone from officials in the home secretary’s office to self-styled migrant hunters who prowl the Kent coast.
On Tuesday there were no light blue ship icons on the app in the middle of the Channel, which indicate dinghy-related activity from UK Border Force cutters or French navy ships. The sky above the shore was heavy and almost pure white. Snow was forecast, the temperature was barely above zero and the sea was choppy.
After a week with no crossings, 197 people crossed on Monday in five boats. The latest plans unveiled by the home secretary in parliament – to detain people on arrival without access to bail or judicial review and initiating discussions in Strasbourg about use of the European court of human rights powers – will, according to Suella Braverman, stop the boats. She repeated her battle cry of “enough is enough”.
The home secretary’s speech was scant on detail and has been greeted with scepticism by some residents in Dover who have seen many asylum seekers arrive after being picked up in the Channel by Border Force cutters and taken to Western Jet Foil for initial processing.
Michael O’Leary, 81, who has lived in Dover since 2004, is a keen small boat watcher and sometimes films the arrivals.
“I see them landing here or a bit further up the coast,” he said. “There should be ways for the genuine ones to come but some of them come with expensive mobile phones worth £2,000 and meet their friends here. There are too many who are coming who are not needy. But families shouldn’t have to come in small boats.”
Kay Marsh, another Dover resident who works for the migrants rights charity Samphire, said that she has seen attitudes of local people harden against asylum seekers. She described Braverman’s announcement as “more of the same and almost certainly unworkable”.
“I do a lot of community cohesion work and small boat arrivals is one of the main issues for people,” Marsh said. “I used to find that people were more willing to listen. But now it’s more of ‘this is what I read in the newspapers and this is what the government is saying’. Asylum seekers are normal people who want a safe life. Everybody is entitled to that.”
Chris Johnson, who lives just outside Dover, who is described as “far right” and a “migrant hunter” by the organisation Hope Not Hate, stepped out of his white BMW on the white cliffs of Dover to catch a glimpse of the arrival of Rishi Sunak and his entourage at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre. When it came the glimpse of the prime minister in a blacked-out car surrounded by police and security in cars and on motorbikes was fleeting.
Johnson told the Guardian the “far right” label does not apply to him.
“I want to bring both sides together to talk about this issue instead of screaming and shouting at each other,” he said. “I’m just me and I don’t want to see any bodies on the beach.”
One asylum seeker living in Home Office accommodation in Napier barracks in Folkestone, said: “The home secretary’s announcement today is a revenge plan and closes any ray of hope for those whose lives are in danger and seek safety and security in Britain.”
Another 20-year-old asylum seeker who recently left Napier said: “The picture of us that is being drawn by government and far right is very saddening. The world needs to understand that we are human and should be treated like humans.”
Sally Hough, director of Napier drop-in centre, supporting asylum seekers accommodated in Napier barracks, said: “The spitefulness of Braverman and Sunak’s proposed legislation is stomach churning, This is the equivalent of the government erecting homemade no entry signs on the shores of the UK. Just saying no one will be eligible to claim asylum if they arrive in a small boat from today won’t make it happen. The UK is a signatory of the Geneva conventions which enshrine the right to seek asylum in international law and refugees may not be penalised for the manner in which they arrive in a country to seek sanctuary.”
The new rules announced by the home secretary are supposed to be applied retrospectively from Tuesday. It remains to be seen whether they will deter more small boats from heading towards the Dover coast on Wednesday and beyond.
