Senior Tory MP Tim Loughton suggests quarantining cross-channel migrants on cruise ships after arriving in Britain before being sent back to France
- East Worthing and Shoreham MP said stricter measures were needed
- He said it ‘made a nonsense’ of the quarantine facing British tourists
- Said Channel migrants should be immediately handed back to the French
Tim Loughton, whose East Worthing and Shoreham constituency is on the south coast, suggested stricter measures were needed.
Migrants crossing the Channel from France to Britain should be held in military bases or even aboard cruise ships to ensure they quarantine properly, a senior Tory MP has suggested.
Tim Loughton, whose East Worthing and Shoreham constituency is on the south coast, suggested stricter measures were needed to prevent an influx of coronavirus.
He said it ‘made a nonsense’ of the quarantine facing British tourists returning from France if migrants were not facing a strict regime.
And he called for those trying to cross the Channel to be immediately handed back to the French authorities.
His comments came as yet more migrants arrived in Britain this morning, the day after 112 refugees crossed the Channel.
It emerged last night that smuggler gangs are offering migrants ‘gold, silver and bronze’ package deals – with the cheapest costing less than £1,000.
‘If the procedure was that when the French saw a boat they would forcibly take them back, or if they made it into British territorial waters the Border Force could do the same and take them back, then that would be the most effective thing,’ Mr Loughton told the Telegraph.
‘People would soon start to realise that they had paid people smugglers £4,000 only to end up where they started.’
His comments came as yet more migrants arrived in Britain this morning, the day after 112 refugees crossed the Channel
A baby was among 112 migrants to be intercepted while crossing the Channel to the UK yesterday
Traffickers take advantage of vulnerable asylum seekers desperately fleeing their homelands by offering the paid-for arrangement at a camp in Calais.
The most expensive package, gold, costs £10,000 and means you get a larger boat with better conditions, less other people and lifejackets, as reported by The Sun.
One migrant who is hoping to make the journey in the next few days told the newspaper: ‘The prices vary. It depends on the size of the boat and how many people are inside.
‘People come around offering the crossings. We pay and keep in touch. They tell us when and where to go and pick us up.
‘I’m looking forward to it. Britain is like heaven to me!’
It comes as Dan O’Mahoney, the man overseeing Britain’s response to crossings in The Channel, revealed limits imposed by other countries made it difficult to export migrants who have had their asylum claims refused in the UK.
The silver package costs between £3,000 and £5,000, and means you get a worse boat. And the lowest package, bronze, means you pay a prize of £1,000 or less and are often crammed onto a stolen boat.
It comes as more than 1,000 migrants have arrived in the past 10 days, with more than 100, including a baby, picked up along the coast of Dover, Kent, yesterday.
Yesterday 112 people, including a baby, arrived on eight vessels.
Mr O’Mahoney, the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said other countries caps’ make it difficult to send refugees back, if they don’t have a legitimate asylum claim to stay in the UK.
He said: ‘It is a fact that these crossings are illegally facilitated by criminals who are making money exploiting migrants desperate to come to our country.