Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones urged UK Border Force to take migrants intercepted in the English Channel to Dover rather than Hampshire – but it is understood that the group is instead being brought into Gosport this evening (Tuesday).
The latest information indicates that those onboard the small boat are being brought into the Solent by Border Force, despite the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner calling for them to be transferred to Dover by sea.
Earlier estimates suggested that as many as 100 people could have been onboard the vessel. However, the latest indications suggest the actual number is closer to 50.
As previously reported by Island Echo, the small boat is thought to have left the French coast near Caen at around 21:00 last night (Monday), before being shadowed by the French vessel ‘Abeille Liberte’.
It subsequently entered British waters, with RNLI All Weather Lifeboats from Eastbourne and Hastings launched to intercept it.
A Coastguard Rescue plane from Newquay was also seen circling above the vessel during its journey across the Channel.
Earlier today, Donna Jones called on UK Border Force to intervene and take those onboard directly to Dover, raising concerns about the impact another arrival in Hampshire could have on policing resources and local communities.
Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, has said:
“I am urging UK Border Force to collect the migrants in the Channel now, in the next hour, and transfer them to Dover via the water on a UK Cutter which is in the area. This is the assurance I was seeking 10 days ago from the Home Secretary.
“Hampshire is not prepared or set-up to process people travelling into Britain this way, and the burden on the police to deal with the arrival and potential protest activity is unsustainable.
“Following the events of September 6 when a migrant boat was brought ashore to Portsmouth, I wrote to the Home Secretary to request immediate action to stop Hampshire becoming an established landing site.
“I am deeply concerned the government has not been in contact with me about its plans to land crossings in Hampshire, whilst expecting me to pay for the policing response on behalf of the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
“This is no way to run an operation like this.”
Today’s incident comes just over 2 weeks after more than 150 migrants were intercepted in the English Channel by Bembridge and Yarmouth RNLI crews.
They were eventually brought ashore at Eastney Beach in Portsmouth on 6th September.
Referring to the impact of that incident, Commissioner Jones added:
“The event on September 6 sparked multiple large scale protests, and caused a great deal of concern across local communities. It drained valuable police resources with hundreds of police officers drafted in to keep the community safe.
“Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary cannot repeatedly divert its resources to manage landings the county was never designed to receive.”
Earlier today, Reform UK group leader Councillor James Whelan confirmed that the Isle of Wight Council was aware of the developing incident and was embedded in the multi-agency response.
He said the likelihood of the small boat itself landing on the Isle of Wight was “very very very low”, with the prospect of those onboard subsequently being brought to the Island also described as “very low”.
UPDATE @ 18:30 – Island Echo understands that Donna Jones has been granted her wish, with the illegal migrants onboard the HMC Vigilant now being taken to Dover.
no lifeboat crew should allow theirselves to get on the boat, if they are taxi-ing illegals in to the uk – they should all refuse, then the lifeboat cant be involved
deport all these freeloaders
I did read sometime ago that HMS Dolphin in
Gosport may end up being a migrant base.
And for once, I agree with her. Not on costs, but certainly on policing and infrastructure. There needs to be one processing centre. The reason asylum seekers are coming along the channel is BECAUSE of the agreement we have with the French which currently only polices Calais and the known trouble spot areas (shortest routes) and so the organised gangs are setting off further down the coast which increase time at sea the associated risks, and why they are then being shadowed. The French can intercept and remove empty boats before they set sail, but not once at sea. That would be scuppering, and illegal in any nation.
This is where we stand both legally and morally as a nation. You can dislike it but to stand against it is therefore illegal and immoral.
1. The Legal Duty to Render Assistance
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), all vessels have a strict legal duty to assist anyone in distress at sea. French authorities shadow these boats to monitor them in case they capsize or require immediate rescue.
2. The Right to Refuse Rescue
Under maritime law, people on board a vessel have the right to refuse assistance if they are not in immediate, life-threatening danger. Because migrant groups frequently refuse to board French ships—wishing instead to reach UK territorial waters—French crews cannot legally force them onto a French vessel unless the boat is actively sinking or a mass rescue is triggered. Forcing an interception on an uncooperative, overcrowded inflatable dinghy carries an extreme risk of causing a capsize and mass drowning.
3. Freedom of Navigation
The English Channel contains some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, parts of which are international waters. Under international law, vessels (even small, unseaworthy ones) possess the right of transit, and a coastal state cannot simply block or “push back” a vessel into another country’s jurisdiction without violating international sovereignty laws.
Why keep referring to it as a “small” boat? Deliberately making it sound like a triviality.
No, it’s because there are small as opposed to bigger. registered vessels.
Dona Jones may have got her wish, but for a vast amount of Islanders, Africa would be the first and nearest destination choice that we would settle for, and only then once their phones had been taken off them so they had to start the whole journey, payment and finding a new smart phone again.
Eventually the message, along with those with enough bottle to voice their anger at such, may make them stay where they belong if a future Government doesn’t get tough then the UK will be ruined forever.
They can breed in Africa faster than we can afford to treat, feed, house, educate, and imprison them.
Geldof has a lot to answer for, for they must have thought the
care was not just a one off, but forever.
A few pennies in an Oxfam tin used to suffice, now we have to build an eventual home for them, and then fund the rent and c.tax as they have nothing.
And people think President Trump is mad? Try seeing what your leaders impose on us, not them, us. Think then vote next time.
What a disgusting attitude from a disgusting human being. Did you laugh at the pictures of Aylan Kurdi face down in the sea and say serves him right? Had he lived, would you have taken everything from him and dumped him with the one shoe on in Africa?
If that’s the opinion of the ‘vast amount of islanders’ we are a truly sick in the head nation. As well as being extremely ill-educated on a) world affairs, b) the law, and a curious but sinister view that the bad treatment of fellow humans is somewhat mitigated but putting a ‘few pennies’ in an Oxfam tin. As if that exonerates your nastiness and lack of humanity.
It’s beginning to look like psychopaths are not born, they are created. Just ask Trump. Biggest clue is constant lack of empathy.
What on earth has this got to do with the Police and Crime Commissioner? It is an operational matter that she has no business to be interfering in.
Because of policing resources. And because she’s a Tory.
Well done Donna. Keep up the good work
Why is this French vessel ‘Abeille Liberte’.escorting the small boat from the French Waters to our territorial waters, when we are paying France to stop the illegals.
Google it, rather than asking an uneducated comments section of closet racists.