Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Paragraph: 21
Small boat crossings potentially reflect displaced traffic, requiring caution for policy development.
Conclusion
The visibility of small boat crossings of the English Channel should not prevent our remembering that migrants also use ferries, planes, trains and vehicles to enter the United Kingdom irregularly and by clandestine means. The rapid increase in the proportion of people making the dangerous journey across the Channel may suggest, however, that security improvements made by the French and UK authorities in northern France is displacing traffic from those routes into small boats. We agree with the Permanent Secretary that any policy that closes down small boat immigration by inadvertently creating something even more dangerous would be a pyrrhic victory and reiterate the necessity for the Government fully to develop, test and risk assess any such policy before it is announced.
Government Response Summary
The government stated it already closely monitors all forms of illegal migration and is alert to potential displacement across different entry types, adding that its preventative activities are threat-agnostic and capabilities are adaptable.
Paragraph Reference:
21
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government monitors closely all forms of illegal migration and is alert to the potential for displacement across different types of entry. Most preventative activity is threat-agnostic and will target criminal facilitators involved in different types of illegal migration. The capabilities we have built up in response to Channel crossings can be repointed to most shifts in the nature of the threat.