Minister Denies Royal Navy Is ‘Tour Guide’ for Illegal Immigrants in the Channel

A group of people brought ashore by the RNLI following a small boat incident in the English Channel are brought to Dungeness, Kent, England, on March 15, 2022. Gareth Fuller/PA

Armed forces minister James Heappey has denied the Royal Navy has been reduced to the role of “tour guide” to escort illegal immigrants in the Channel to the English coast.

He told the Defence Select Committee on Tuesday he believed the Royal Navy had “gained control” of the English Channel and said only one boat had managed to land illegal immigrants in Kent since Operation Isotrope began in March.

Almost 13,000 people have crossed the Channel from France in small boats since the beginning of January, with the monthly total for June at 3,136, the highest of the year.

But almost all of the dinghies and rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) were intercepted by the navy, by the RNLI or other British law enforcement vessels, which then took the illegal immigrants ashore and handed them over to the immigration authorities.

Labour MP John Spellar claimed the Home Office had sold the idea of Operation Isotrope as an initiative which would stop illegal immigrants entering Britain completely but instead, he said, the Royal Navy was simply escorting them into Kent ports.

“Is the Royal Navy happy with that role?” he asked.

Heappey replied, “I’ve heard no suggestion otherwise.”

Undated photograph of UK Minister for Armed Forces James Heappey. David Mirzoeff/PA

‘A Long Tradition in Domestic Maritime Security’

The minister added: “The Royal Navy has a long tradition of playing a role around our domestic maritime security, whether that be from a counter-smuggling perspective, a counter-terrorist perspective, a counter-migration perspective or a counter-illegal fishing perspective. This is hardly new territory.”

Spellar responded, “Would it be fair to say that the role of the Royal Navy was to be a tour guide for illegal migrants to get them safely onto our shores?”

Heappey replied, “I think that would be a really unfair reflection of the work they’re doing.”

The minister then said all the immigrant boats were “vessels in distress” and he said, “John, if what you’re asking is do the navy object to attending a vessel in distress then, no, 100 percent they do not.”

The chair of the Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, asked Heappey what the military was trying to achieve with Operation Isotrope.

Heappey, said: “The role of the military in the English Channel is quite tightly bound, it is there to gain control of the flow of migrants from France to Kent. Within that is a greater assuredness over the capacity of UK-based maritime assets to save life at sea.”

He said they had succeeded in gaining “control” and he said only one boat had got through and landed since the military became involved in March, and those on board had been apprehended by the Nuclear Constabulary near Dungeness power station.

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta signed the migration and economic development partnership in Kigali in April. Flora Thompson/PA

‘Control Means People Not Arriving in an Uncontrolled Way’

Asked by the SNP’s Dave Doogan what he meant by control, Heappey said, “Control means that people are not arriving in the United Kingdom in an uncontrolled way, in other words, they are not arriving in the United Kingdom on their own.”

Doogan responded: “It seems to me that you’ve established control of the receipt, or the termination, of those voyages. There’s no control over the embarcation of these voyages from France. There’s no control over the number of vessels. There’s no control over the number of people. All that is controlled is the escort service.”

The minister said it was for the Home Office to answer the wider question and he alluded to Home Secretary Priti Patel’s controversial Rwanda policy, which is intended to deter illegal immigrants from crossing the Channel.

Heappey said: “In and of itself we don’t move the dial. No-one ever pretended that we do. But we are part of a system that if the system works and there is greater levels of deterrence and interaction and interdiction on the continental side of the Channel, and if there is a process when people arrive in the UK to outcomes which further the deterrence of those attempting to cross without cause, then we are part of a system which has moved the dial.”

Heappey confirmed there were 189 servicemen involved in Operation Isotrope; 107 of them were from the British Army and were largely involved in stewarding and security at Western Jetfoil, an aircraft hangar in Kent, and the nearby former army base at Manston, which is where the illegal immigrants are being processed.

He said Operation Isotrope was due to be reviewed in January 2023 and it was hoped Home Office staff would take over much of the stewarding from the armed forces, although they still needed to recruit and train workers.