A Border Force vessel assist a group of people thought to be migrants on board from their inflatable dinghy in the Channel, Aug 10, 2020. (GARETH FULLER / PA VIA AP)
French authorities have rejected the suggestion that Britain's Royal Navy could be deployed in the English Channel to deal with migrants attempting the crossing from mainland Europe to the United Kingdom.
So far this year, more than 4,000 people, many in overcrowded small vessels, have successfully crossed one of the world's busiest shipping lanes
So far this year, more than 4,000 people, many in overcrowded small vessels, have successfully crossed one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and last week, a new one-day record total of 235 was recorded.
International maritime law states that people at risk of losing their lives at sea must be rescued but the British authorities want to increase efforts to prevent them from even attempting the journey, and are calling on more support from French border forces.
"What is the British navy going to do if it sees a small boat? Is it going to shoot the boat?" Pierre-Henri Dumont, a member of the French parliament representing the Calais area, told the BBC.
"Is it going to enter French waters? It's a political measure to show some kind of muscle but technically speaking it won't change anything. We are already trying to do whatever we can. We can't have a camera and police officer every 10 meters."
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When British Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted that "we also need the cooperation of the French to intercept boats and return migrants back to France", former French ambassador to the United Nations Gerard Araud made a cutting reply. "Actually, Madam Secretary, as you may know, the cooperation with France was enshrined in the EU rules. You'll have to negotiate a new treaty with your neighbor," he said in a thinly-veiled reference to Brexit.
A British Ministry of Defense source told the Press Association that the suggestion of naval deployment of ships to back up the Home Office's own Border Force boats was "completely inappropriate and disproportionate ... it's beyond absurd to think that we should be deploying multimillion-pound ships and elite soldiers to deal with desperate people barely staying afloat on rubber dinghies in the Channel."
Asylum-seekers
Stephen Hale, the chief executive of Refugee Action, a charity which has been campaigning on behalf of refugees since the early 1980s, wrote: "4,000 people have crossed the Channel in 2020. 154,620 people claimed asylum in France in 2019."
According the terms of the United Nations Refugee Convention, there is no obligation on refugees to seek shelter in the first safe country they reach, which is why some people decided to travel through countries such as France to try to reach the UK to claim asylum.
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However, fact-checking organization fullfact.org says there is a European Union law known as the Dublin regulation which can, under certain circumstances, see refugees who have reached the UK via another EU country be returned to the first EU state they entered.
