More “small boats” carrying asylum seekers and economic migrants were heading across the Channel on Friday morning towards the UK just hours after Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron agreed a one-in-one-out deal which they hope will act as a deterrent.
One Border Force vessel arrived in Dover before 9am, having picked up a group of people in a “small boat” on its way to Britain.
Other inflatable boats, carrying migrants, were reported to be out at sea, having left the northern French coast earlier.
The RNLI also deployed vessels to try to avoid any more fatalities among migrants, including children, packed into often overcrowded, unseaworthy boats.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said migrants crossing the Channel will be detained as part of the one-in-one-out deal with France agreed on Thursday, though it has yet to come into force, and still needs the approval of the European Commission.
She told BBC radio: ”We will be detaining people certainly as the pilot is introduced and as the programme becomes operationalised.”
Amid reports that the initial pilot scheme would see just 50 migrants a week taken back to France, and the UK in return would accept someone from France with a right to come here, she declined to put a figure on the planned programme.
But she stressed the UK was keen to expand.
“The numbers are not fixed, even for this pilot phase that we are starting now,” she told Times Radio.
“So this will be a programme that we roll out step-by-step.”
She also argued that under the new agreement with France, its authorities were backing tougher action to tackle the criminal gang “nightmare” around Calais.
She stressed that French police would in coming weeks be taking a more interventionist approach to prevent “small boats” leaving for the UK, but stopped short of saying it would mean officers more frequently slashing boats with knives to deflate them in shallow waters or using tear gas as has happened in a couple of incidents.
But the Conservatives argued that the UK’s migrant returns deal with France is a “gimmick” and will not deter people from crossing the Channel, with more than 20,000 having already made the often perilous journey this year.
Around two thirds of people who make the crossing are granted asylum in the UK.
Dismissing the new deal, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sky News: “I’m afraid it’s not groundbreaking, it is a gimmick just like his absurd claim a year ago to be smashing the gangs, which has totally failed.”
Referring to reports that only 50 people a week could be sent back to France under the scheme, he added: “Quite clearly, if 94% of illegal immigrants arriving get to stay here, there’s going to be no deterrent effect whatsoever, so it’s not going to work.
“And unfortunately, these record-ever numbers of illegal immigrants entering the UK, unfortunately, are set to continue.”
Mr Philp also called for the reintroduction of the Rwanda scheme, claiming this would have seen everyone arriving in the UK by small boat sent to the East African nation.
The Tories never managed to get the scheme off the ground despite repeated pledges to do it.
