New migrant routes could be opening up along the south coast following Sunday’s unprecedented Channel crossing, Isle of Wight MP Joe Robertson has warned.
The Isle of Wight East MP has written urgently to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood after around 150 migrants travelled across the Channel in a single ‘mega-dinghy’, sparking a major operation involving Island lifeboats.
Robertson says the events have ‘not been seen before along our part of the coast’, highlighting that the Isle of Wight is around 80 miles from France – almost 4 times the distance between Kent and France.
Warning that people smugglers could now be turning their attention further west, he said:
“What we saw yesterday does point towards a worrying possibility – that new Channel crossing routes are opening up.
“It appears that an 80-mile stretch of open water is no longer a deterrent to people smugglers.
“If this is the case then much of the south coast of England could see small boat crossings in the future.”
Robertson is demanding to know what assessment the Home Office has made of other coastal areas becoming vulnerable and what preparations are underway should regular crossings begin further west.
He has also questioned whether measures announced by the Prime Minister during French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit are ‘inadequate and targeted in the wrong place’.
As previously reported by Island Echo, Bembridge and Yarmouth RNLI lifeboats were tasked at around 10:35 on Sunday to a large migrant vessel roughly halfway between the Isle of Wight and Cherbourg.
Those onboard were eventually brought ashore at Eastney in Portsmouth before being transferred to the Home Office’s Manston processing centre in Kent.
Robertson has praised the Island’s volunteer lifeboat crews, with Bembridge’s crew spending more than 12 hours at sea.
He said:
“The RNLI is a charity established to save lives at sea and respond to boats in danger. It is not the job of the Lifeboat to police UK waters.
“Anyone entering the UK with no legal right to be here should be deported without delay by the Home Office, but when it comes to saving lives, every life matters no matter where you are from.”
Robertson is now awaiting an ‘urgent response’ from the Home Secretary.
So what has the Labour MP Mr Quigley got to say on this issue???
Look! a Bandwagon! Climb aboard, all no-hope politicos.
Question: who tipped off the protesters that there was a migrant group heading for Eastney? If Joe wanted to do something useful he could get his Tory mate Donna Jones to find the mole in the public services.
Maybe there needs to be a processing centre on the south coast or
on the island.
It will create job opportunities for many individuals.
The RNLI do a wonderful but dangerous job, keep up the good work
guys saving lives at sea.
So your view is that several thousand undocumented young males from alien cultures roaming around on the island is a good thing?
The job opportunities it will create will be for the police, private security firms and the manufacturers of personal alarms. However, such bounty will be offset by the sharp drop in visitor numbers and the loss of tourist jobs.
Tourism on the island is a thing of the past.
Are you for real?
Take a walk along Sandown or Church Litten
and see all the local drugged / pissed up numpties
not to mention all the scum we read about on a weekly
basis who assault Emergency workers.
These numpties aren’t Migrants they are local numpties.
Maybe it is time Britain deported all the lawless numpties to
Australia like Britain did in the old days.
Are you? Or just another ill informed racist?
Best detterent is stop letting Labour/green party allow these people to stay and give them free food,benefits and housing. If they are desperate to keep them in country put them in labour camps doing work.
Labour and Green ‘allowing them to stay’? Really? In all 149 countries who all signed the same agreement under international law that we did? Goodness, and I never knew humanist principles were so rife across the world and only championed here by socialists.
Makes the other parties look like right a–holes in comparison, doesn’t it?
But of course the bigger question is….so how come immigration was at its highest under the Conservative?
Second biggest question….how come YOU think any form of concentration camp is acceptable for human beings?
Merely saying what he well knows is what many of the public ‘wishes’ to hear. But will do nothing about it, so long as Bembridge and Seaview and areas where they ‘better people’ reside stay free of such ills.
Perhaps Joe is different, but his party has had the chance and did nothing to stem the flow so trust is sadly gone as the party, not Joe makes such decisions.
Would also love to know just how many of these sort have family members who make a fortune from immigrants by owning land and property which is under ever greater pressure for building upon due to an increasing population, whether that be displaced indigenous people moving away from areas they no longer feel at home or safe in, or land for migrants future homes.
Also many have family members working in lucrative legal professions withing immigrant law.
So to me, only Reform have promised from day one to tackle the problem whereas the other two parties have had their chances and failed miserably.
The greens costal border protection of growing a prickly Gorse hedge all around our coast would take too long too and a pair of sharp shears would .
So only one real choice left,that being Reform, despite the dirt currently being dug,(which no doubt will increase a hundred fold as we one day near the next GE) the important matter is they are the most likely to try to tackle this issue not just pay lip service to such.
Reform know full well that they cannot do anything at all from day one. The UK is a signed and ratified member of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol. In theory they could rip it up, but there is a rule that means we’d have to renegotiate for a year before that can happen. As it’s International Law, it would mean a massive international fall-out with allies and potentially leave all Brits abroad in a very dangerous position, not to mention all the trade agreements with the rest of the world in jeopardy. We’d be pariahs overnight.
But I guess Farage and Tice simply don’t care. They be top of their little pure white empire overseeing the masses of the very poor workers. Who also have had all their rights and protections removed.
Hahahaha! You want see the amount of land and property that Farage and Tice own and profit from. Tackle the problem? Don’t talk daft! People like them ARE the problem.
But you’re clearly happy to totally ignore dirt (happy as a pig in…what’s the saying?) so crack on dear.
You’ll be waiting a lot longer than day one though….international law dictates it, even though Farage thinks he’s the messiah.
Really Joe? Want to take that to International Law to argue?
Here’s what you need to take note of first…
The Right to Apply: Enshrined in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, individuals can request protection in any signatory country. [1]
Principle of Non-Refoulement: Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, countries cannot expel or return an asylum-seeker to a territory where their life or freedom is threatened. [1]
Definition of a Refugee: Protection applies to those fleeing due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. [1, 2]
No “First Safe Country” Rule: International law and the Refugee Convention do not require individuals to apply for asylum in the very first safe country they reach. [1, 2]
Irregular Entry: Under Article 31 of the Convention, refugees may enter a country irregularly to seek safety, and the act of seeking asylum is legal even if entry methods violated local immigration controls
I totally agree. The RNLI is funded by British people’s donations and is supposed to be for rescuing British people in distress in the sea in British waters! The RNLI was never intended as a taxi service for illegal migrants to be taxied onto our shores! I wonder how these dedicated volunteers now feel about what they are having to do! I would love to hear from some of those volunteers. Everyone I have seen posting about this recently, has said that they are cancelling their donations! I agree with them. No doubt the Government will fund them instead, as they seem to have infinite resources! But honestly, how will our once Royal National Rescue Service still exist as it once was…. just a short time ago?? Sadness
I totally agree. The RNLI is funded by British people’s donations and is supposed to be for rescuing British people in distress in the sea in British waters! The RNLI was never intended as a taxi service for illegal migrants to be taxied onto our shores! I wonder how these dedicated volunteers now feel about what they are having to do! I would love to hear from some of those volunteers. Everyone I have seen posting about this recently, has said that they are cancelling their donations! I agree with them. No doubt the Government will fund them instead, as they seem to have infinite resources! But honestly, how will our once Royal National Lifeboat Service still exist as it once was…. just a short time ago?? Sadness