Sajid Javid claims many migrants crossing the Channel in boats are bogus refugees

MANY of the migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are trying to hoax Britain into believing they are genuine asylum seekers, Sajid Javid warned yesterday.

On a trip to meet overstretched Border Force officials the Home Secretary said many could be bogus refugees.

He said genuine asylum seekers would be happy to stay in France rather than risking the perilous journey to Britain.

Some 539 migrants crossed the Dover Straits in 2018 - with 80 per cent making the journey in the last three months.

He said the Government was doing “everything we can” to ensure migrants are returned to France. But he admitted that all migrants picked up in British waters would have to be taken to a port in the UK.

Only if they are found in French waters can they be returned to France.

As part of efforts to crack down on the influx of migrants choosing to make the dangerous crossing Mr Javid boarded the only Border Force Searcher cutter currently in UK waters for an hour yesterday.

He warned that those who do manage to reach the English coast won’t be allowed to stay.

Mr Javid said the UK had to send a strong message to trafficking gangs that they “won’t succeed and we won’t allow people to succeed”.

Granting them asylum would only encourage more to make the journey across the Channel, he added.

In a message to others contemplating making the journey, the Home Secretary warned: “If you do somehow make it to the UK, we will do everything we can to make sure that you are often not successful because we need to break that link, and to break that link means we can save more lives.”

He added: “A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?

“Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in anyway whatsoever, and if you are genuine then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?”

Mr Javid has also pledged to seek a new agreement with France so the migrants can be returned there.

Former Royal Navy chief Lord West said Britain should use the EU’s so-called Dublin Regulation that says the European country where asylum seekers first entered must be responsible for them.

He told Sky News: “We do need to have an agreement with the French and we should try to stop these people in French waters.

“We can rescue them in french waters because the law of the seas says you can rescue people in distress anywhere and then you should return them to the closest land - and that’s France.

“So we need to return them to France for the French to deal with the first country they came to in Europe and sort out who are real refugees and who are economic migrants. I imagine that very few of them are real refugees - most will be economic migrants.”

Tory MP for Dover Charlie Elphicke said Mr Javid’s visit was a “welcome start” but said the Government must “develop better aerial surveillance” in order to plug the weakness of the coastline in the long term.

But Mr Javid’s comments sparked outrage from left-wing politicians and charities last night.

Oxfam said rejecting asylum applications on the basis they arrived in boats across the Channel is “an affront to fairness and decency”.

Head of Government Relations Jon Date said: “The lack of safe options for people to claim asylum in the UK forces some to take dangerous boat journeys. If the Home Secretary is serious about protecting lives, he should provide more safe options for people seeking asylum. This includes changing the restrictive rules on family reunion so that people with relatives in the UK can apply to live with them.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy accused him of legitimising “anti-refugee rhetoric online” with his remarks.

She fumed: “The asylum system in France is completely deadlocked and I fear deliberately so - they should be challenged on that.

“But none of that means Britain can absolve itself of responsibility to refugees.

“People will continue to die and be at mercy of traffickers all the time politicians pretend to play tough for votes rather than recognise why people flee.”

And Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey said Mr Javid’s comments showed the Tories’ “nasty, hostile environment is alive and well”.

He said: “Many of these people have fled war in Syria or persecution in Iran. For the Home Secretary to suggest – on the basis of no evidence whatsoever – that they are not ‘genuine’ asylum seekers is completely unacceptable.”

Earlier this week Mr Javid made a humiliating U-turn by recalling two cutters back from the Med and Aegean Seas to help patrol the South Coast of England.

But yesterday it emerged they might not be back in UK waters for another fortnight.

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