Our nearest neighbour needs to get serious about preventing illegal migration – or we need to send the boats back
Despite the UK paying the French £480 million to stop small boats crossing the Channel, we learnt last week that Paris has intercepted less than half of those attempting to make the journey. In fact, they are intercepting fewer than they did last year.
This is a disgrace. Disgraceful too is the realisation that Afghan migrants who may have helped my colleagues and myself in fighting the Taliban have been pushed into these small boats by seemingly untouchable smuggling gangs; some have perished.
The only way to stop these deaths is to stop the armadas of boats that cross the Channel each day. I may be speaking out of turn as a former soldier, but I find it simply unbelievable that the French cannot prevent the boats being launched; it seems more likely that they simply don’t want to.
The launch sites must be on a relatively small area of coast opposite the cliffs of Dover; the preparation of a launch requires moving a boat to a beach, and more than a few seconds of time.