Protesters try to block RNLI lifeboat heading out to rescue migrants
It has now emerged that a second boat, organised by the same smugglers, was forced to return to shore after suffering engine failure on the same night….
The best way to beat the Channel traffickers is to let refugees enter the UK legally
The harrowing 2019 discovery of 39 Vietnamese migrants dead in the back of a lorry remains a stark reminder that Channel crossings are by no means the…
Migrant crisis key doorstep issue in by-election, says Reform UK candidate
The migrant crisis has become a key issue on the doorstep in the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election campaign, the Reform UK candidate has said, as he…
French PM to offer Boris Johnson EU migration deal after Channel deaths
These options have been rebuffed by France, which has counter-proposed that Britain should allow asylum seekers’ applications to be processed in France and accept those that are…
Macron electioneers while the migrant crisis deepens
Ministers from France, Belgium, Germany and the EU met on Sunday in Calais to come up with a solution to the crisis that culminated in the deaths…
French and British police ignored drowning migrants in Channel, says survivor
A survivor of the Channel boat tragedy claimed on Sunday that migrants phoned both French and British police forces but their pleas for help were ignored –…
Britain must take responsibility for Channel migrant crisis, say French
Britain must take responsibility for the Channel crisis and make itself “less attractive for migrants”, France’s interior minister said on Sunday at an emergency meeting from which…
Smugglers told family of migrant feared to have drowned in Channel that he had reached the UK
Migrants in the Grande-Synthe camp outside Dunkirk on Saturday revealed in detail how their families paid people smugglers to help them reach the UK. One 18-year-old from…
Collapse of Cold War certainties is stoking the global migrant crisis
There is nothing new about vast numbers of people traversing the globe to escape from danger or despair. Human history is a story of the migration of…
Border Force rudderless as no one wants to take ‘poisoned chalice’ job
“They haven’t got anyone for the top job,” said one well-placed source. “It’s a disaster. Priti was not happy with any of the candidates.” It is believed…
The judges and people smugglers are united in disregarding the importance of borders
Central to a democratic nation is the idea that citizenship brings rights. It follows that if non-citizens can arrive illegally and then avail themselves of those rights,…
Failure to prosecute migrants arriving illegally leaves UK looking like ‘soft touch’
The CPS advised its prosecutors that migrants often had no choice in how they travelled and told them instead to focus on smugglers and repeat offenders. However,…
Migrant smuggler ‘butchers’ must be stopped, victim’s father tells France
Mr Mohammed’s nephew, Darya, told how his family in Ranya, Iraq, feared the worst after hearing nothing more from him for days. “He was alone, but there…
French minister cancels meeting with Priti Patel in light of migrant crisis criticism
France’s interior minister has cancelled his weekend talks with Priti Patel in protest at Boris Johnson’s letter calling on the French to take back Channel migrants. Gerald…
Brexit means you chose to give up migrant returns, France tells Boris Johnson
Mr Johnson’s letter had five proposals, which included officials from both countries joining forces to patrol French beaches and a “returns” agreement for France to take back…
There’s nothing wrong with Boris Johnson’s letter to Emmanuel Macron
Concerned parents who fear their offspring might be showing an unhealthy tendency towards politics, and who might even be considering a career in parliament, could do worse…
Macron could solve the migrant crisis if he wanted
It is a mystery of politics that those who claim Britain is a small, irrelevant country always insist we have a unique responsibility to solve the world’s…
Friday evening UK news briefing: ‘Nu’ Covid variant found in Europe
Of all the variants so far, B.1.1.529 is causing the most alarm, but why? Since delta, there have been eight other variants named sequentially after letters of…
Emmanuel Macron cancels key meeting, claiming Boris Johnson ‘not serious’ about migrant crisis
Emmanuel Macron dismissed Boris Johnson as “not serious” after the Prime Minister sent a letter, publicly relayed online, to the French president in which he called on…
Pictured: First victim of Channel migrant disaster
French and British investigators are understood to be piecing together Mrs Nouri’s movements in the days leading up to the sinking. The man, a Kurdish immigrant living…
‘Go west. Go’: Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko urges border migrants to follow EU ‘dream’
Alexander Lukashenko urged migrants to “go westwards” on Friday and promised he wouldn’t “beat or choke” people who tried to cross the border into the EU. The…
Smuggler shot migrant in the kneecaps when he refused to board boat
On Thursday, a recording of that mayday call was obtained by Sky News. In a short clip, the French coastguard can be heard alerting ships in the…
We can have British guards on French beaches by next week, Boris Johnson tells Emmanuel Macron
Hours earlier, Mr Johnson had called on France to “step up” and do more with the UK to stop small boats, saying “we’ve had difficulties persuading some…
Britain’s asylum policy needs radical reform
The death of 27 men, women and children, who were drowned when their flimsy inflatable capsized in the English Channel this week, is more than just a…
How can Boris Johnson solve the Channel migrant crisis?
To answer these criticisms, Ms Patel’s Bill proposes a one-stop shop where asylum seekers will have to lodge up front at the start of the process all…