Sunak Says He Can ‘Stop the Boats’ After Record 5,400 Arrivals

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a press conference in the Downing Street Briefing Room, London, on Dec. 7, 2023. James Manning/PA Wire

The prime minister is still confident he can “stop the boats” despite the UK seeing more than 5,000 illegal immigrants arrive on Britain’s shores in the first three months of this year.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes he can secure the border, continuing that “as we have said before the Easter recess, the most important thing that we can do to fundamentally break the model of the criminal gangs is to get our Rwanda partnership up and running.”

“So, we want to see that happen and get flights off the ground, and we know the impact that a successful deterrent can have, but at the same time we also continue to work with partners to build on the progress that we saw last year with reduction by a third on the previous year,” she said.

The spokeswoman made the remarks after 791 illegal immigrants arrived in small boats over the Easter weekend, bringing the total provisional number of arrivals this year to 5,435.

This quarterly total is 43 percent higher compared to the same period in 2023 and even higher than the previous record set in 2022, which was 4,548 arrivals.

French Police ‘Facing Violence and Disruption’

The Downing Street spokeswoman said there are “a range of different reasons why you will see fluctuations in the numbers“ of small boats crossing the English Channel, noting that criminal trafficking gangs ”will seek to exploit opportunities and weather, and we know that also French police are facing increasing violence and disruption on the ground on French beaches.”

“We need to keep stepping up our efforts and adapting to the gangs who continually adapt their own tactics, but that’s why alongside continuing that work we have to fundamentally break the business model, and that’s what the Rwanda partnership will do,” she continued.

Last year, 29,437 migrants illegally arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel, down 36 percent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

Previously, Downing Street had said the rise in crossings this year pointed to the need to pass the government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which the government said will act as a deterrent to would-be illegal immigrants.

Nearly 120,000 Illegal Immigrants Crossed English Channel Since 2018

Analysis by The Epoch Times on Sunday revealed that nearly 120,000 illegal immigrants had crossed the English Channel in small boats since 2018, when records for the phenomenon began.

The clandestine crossing of the English Channel began increasing in 2018, prompting then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid to declare the situation “a major incident” in December of that year, after there had been a sharp rise in crossings.

Crossing the English Channel has since become the main route of illegal immigration; by 2022, nearly 84 percent of illegal immigrants detected were small boat arrivals.

Rwanda Will Not Act as a Deterrent: Lecturer

MPs will continue to consider the Rwanda bill after the Easter recess, which the government says that once passed, will mean illegal immigrants can sent to Kigali.

The Downing Street spokeswoman said that getting flights off the ground would be a “successful deterrent” to those wanting to make the cross-Channel journey to Britain, alongside tackling migrant traffickers.

However, University of Sheffield lecturer Sophie Watt, who spent four weeks talking to would-be illegal immigrants in France, said that the threat of removal to Rwanda is not a deterrent to those wanting to come to the UK.

Writing for The Conversation on March 21, Ms. Watt said that “nobody I spoke to would be deterred” from making the crossing, “not by the brutal camp evacuations; the fear of smuggling gangs, the terror of the crossings, or even the promise of a flight to Rwanda once landing in the UK.”

A group of people thought to be illegal immigrants are brought in to Dungeness, Kent, from the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat, following a small boat incident in the Channel, on April 27, 2023. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

The lecturer added that the lack of hospitality in France “further motivates people to cross.”

“I could not live in the jungle any longer, I was determined to come to the UK. I had to try,” one Egyptian told Ms. Watt.

‘Mafia-Like’ Organisation

The academic further detailed that smugglers not only manage the transit of illegal immigrants across the Channel, but oversee the irregular camp at Loon Plage.

Loon Plage, said the academic, was run by Iraqi-Kurdish smugglers, who had also “infiltrated” the town of Grande Synthe and “have a monopoly on boat crossings on this part of the Pas de Calais coast.”

A group of people thought to be migrants are escorted by Border Force officers following a small boat incident in the Channel, from the beach in Dungeness, Kent, England, on July 20, 2021. Gareth Fuller/PA

Described as “mafia-like,” she said the organisation was “structured” and ran hospitality in a smooth manner, including “staff” who ran shops at the camp.

Those who had paid for the “‘all-inclusive’ passage” were also fed as part of the smuggling package.

She noted that not everyone at Loon Plage was intending on immediately leaving for the UK, saying there were a number of “permanents,” or people who stayed in France “to control who comes and goes.”

PA Media and Lily Zhou contributed to this report.