SEND IN THE NAVY
Royal Navy warships to patrol English Channel from TODAY as Boris Johnson sends in troops to tackle migrant crisis
NAVY ships will patrol the English Channel from today as Boris Johnson unveils his battleplan to tackle illegal migration crossings.
At a press conference on the frontline in Kent, the PM deployed troops to make sure "no boat makes it to the UK undetected".
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He said: "From today, the Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel, taking primacy for our operational response at sea."
New ships, cutting-edge military drones and a Wildcat helicopter will be deployed with £50million of extra cash to bolster surveillance.
The PM wants to catch every single boat making the perilous crossing and throw the helms in jail for life under tough new sentences.
He warned: "This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats: if you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison."
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The PM also hailed a landmark deal to send migrants to Rwanda to deter them for making the dangerous trip on rickety dinghies.
Asylum seekers will be flown 6,000 miles to the tiny African nation to have their claims processed there - rather than in British hotels at huge taxpayer cost.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is in the capital Kigali to ink the agreement with Rwanda.
The PM said the multi-million partnership would enable "tens of thousands" of migrants to be resettled in the coming years.
Braced for the likely backlash to his controversial plan, he lashed out at lefty lawyers "who for years who have made it their business to thwart removals".
Ms Patel fumed that for too long the "naysayers have sat on their hands and watched people die" in the Channel.
Mr Johnson promised the ambitious move would help eliminate the small boats crisis that has "caused far too much human suffering and tragedy."
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He said his post-Brexit plan would crush the smuggling gangs turning the sea into a "watery graveyard" of dead migrants.
Mr Johnson said: "Around 600 came across the Channel yesterday. In just a few weeks this could again reach a thousand a day.
"I accept that these people – whether 600 or one thousand – are in search of a better life; the opportunities that the United Kingdom provides and the hope of a fresh start.
";But it is these hopes - these dreams - that have been exploited.
"These vile people smugglers are abusing the vulnerable and turning the Channel into a watery graveyard, with men, women and children, drowning in unseaworthy boats and suffocating in refrigerated lorries."
He insisted the UK remains a "beacon of openness", pointing out most of the England football team are the result of legal migration.
HOTEL RWANDA
Ms Priti Patel is in Rwanda where she will today reveal the multi-million pound partnership to help cut crossings.
The move, aimed at deterring illegals from flooding into Britain, is part of a major new immigration shake-up.
At least one multi-million pound migrant processing centre will be set up in the North of England to save millions on hotel bills.
He will effectively fire the starting gun on the next general election campaign, thrusting immigration to the front of the agenda.
Ministers hope shipping illegal migrants thousands of miles away from their ultimate goal will deter them from trying to sneak into Britain by the back door.
Ms Patel flew to Rwanda yesterday to seal a deal with her counterparts in the tiny central African nation.
Ms Patel will today outline the landmark “migration and economic partnership” and visit an accommodation centre where thousands may be housed as she vows to fix our “broken asylum system”.
The Sun understands migrants could be given cash or other incentives to stay in Rwanda, rather than try to claim asylum in Britain.
Local councils will be given extra cash to stop the Home Office forking out £4.7million a day putting asylum seekers up in hotels.
AMBTIOUS DEAL
Last year 27 people drowned on a single day in the Channel when their ramshackle raft sank.
The major new approach comes after years of failures and repeated bungs chucked to France to desperately stop the flow of boats.
The Home Secretary has repeatedly promised to get a grip on the escalating situation but the numbers have only swelled.
Ministers currently spend £1.5billion a year on our woeful asylum system. Hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ cash has been sent to improve security in Calais and Northern France.
A further £54million deal was agreed last year, with extra cash for French police patrols.
But that made little difference to the number of boats heading here.
More migrants are prepared to risk the hazardous boat trip after 39 Vietnamese people suffocated to death in a lorry in 2019.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the new scheme a “desperate and shameful” announcement to “distract from his (Mr Johnson’s) own law-breaking”.
She insisted: “It is an unworkable, unethical and extortionate policy.
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“The Home Office is a catalogue of failure, from passport queues, to Ukrainian visa delays, to rising crime and falling prosecutions.
“Instead of getting a grip on the basics, all Priti Patel and Boris do is come up with wild and unworkable headlines. Britain deserves better.”
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