Reform UK Isle of Wight has warned that direct migrant landings on the Isle of Wight are now a ‘tangible possibility’ following Sunday’s major Channel incident involving more than 150 migrants.
As first reported by Island Echo, Bembridge and Yarmouth RNLI lifeboats were tasked at around 10:35 yesterday (Sunday) to a large migrant dinghy around halfway between the Isle of Wight and Cherbourg, France
More than 150 migrants were subsequently brought ashore at Eastney, where Police in riot gear were deployed as protesters gathered.
The incident has prompted responses from across the political spectrum, including the Island’s 2 MPs and Reform UK.
In a statement issued following Sunday’s events, Reform UK says larger migrant dinghies represent a change in tactics, with such vessels capable of travelling greater distances across the Channel and carrying more occupants.
Although the party acknowledges that the intended destination of Sunday’s crossing cannot be determined, it says the incident shows the issue is “no longer confined to southern Kent and East Sussex”.
A local Reform UK Party spokesperson has said:
“We are seriously concerned about the events as reported by the Island Echo and other news outlets; a feeling that is shared by citizens across the country but which now resonates for us much closer to home. Those who just dismiss the significance of this incident should reconsider their position.
“As documented in national media over the summer months and highlighted by Reform UK, these larger Migrant Dinghies signify a change in tactics and a new reality. Such vessels are capable of longer distance travel across the Channel and with far more occupants than before.
“Though the intended destination of yesterday’s crossing cannot be determined, this issue is clearly no longer confined to southern Kent and East Sussex and demonstrates the tangible possibility of direct migrant landings on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire and neighbouring coastlines.
“These departures from near Cherbourg on the Cotentin Peninsula are now putting stresses upon our community’s vital resources, with real world consequences for local residents, unnecessary risk to RNLI volunteers and additional pressures upon Police and UK Border Force personnel.
“If the facts are not enough, the images speak for themselves; over one hundred people crammed aboard rescue vessels that, though are rightly meant to assist those in peril at sea, are now being exploited to facilitate illegal immigration and profit for human-trafficking gangs.
“It is no longer deniable that the concerns about illegal immigration of Reform UK Members and supporters, and other local Island residents who share in the same, are entirely valid. This is simply not an acceptable situation. It cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.
“Successive Conservative and now Labour Governments have, for over a decade, promised solutions to illegal migration and failed to deliver on those promises; those failures have betrayed public trust, harmed British Citizens and Legal Immigrants, and cost the Country a fortune.
“Reform UK will continue to campaign both locally and nationally to stop all crossings by illegal migrants, to oppose any and all proposals to house, process or even disembark illegal migrants on the Isle of Wight whatsoever, and to properly take back control of our borders.”
Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson has also questioned whether Sunday’s incident could represent a new cross-Channel route and how the Government intends to respond with resources both in the UK and France.
Meanwhile, Isle of Wight West MP Richard Quigley said he spent 7 hours on Sunday speaking with Solent MPs, the Home Office and partner organisations following the incident.
The Labour MP said he would continue to liaise with colleagues in Government and at the Home Office.
