Undocumented Migrants: English Channel

(asked on 16th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent guidance she has given to the (a) Border Force and (b) maritime tactics team on operationalising tactics for pushing back boats carrying illegal migrants in the English Channel.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 5th January 2022

Preventing the illegal entry of people to the UK in small boats is a priority for the Government. The turnaround tactics are one of a selection of tools to decrease the success rate of crossings and make the route less appealing to criminal facilitators, thereby saving lives.

Publishing details of the operational policy, the Border Force guidance and standard operating procedures, and the assessments which operational commanders use to determine when they should deploy the tactics would confer an advantage to organised criminal groups, giving them insight into how to counter or avoid the tactics.

The tactics will only be deployed when it is safe and legal to do so. We have received legal advice from leading counsel on the deployment of the tactics. We can confirm that the tactics are permitted under international and domestic law.

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