Deploy Royal Navy to patrol UK's coastline, say MPs

The Royal Navy should be deployed in the English Channel to protect the UK against migrant people-smugglers and the terror threat, MPs have warned.

The number of vessels available to patrol Britain's coast is "worryingly low", claims a new Home Affairs Select Committee report.

"The report adds to growing pressure for naval assistance to be given to Border Force, which has just four patrol boats, one of which is currently in the Mediterranean," says the Daily Mail. It cites incidents this summer in which 18 Albanian migrants were rescued from a sinking dinghy off the Kent coast and 17 Albanians were discovered on a catamaran in Chichester harbour.

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Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill told BBC Radio's Today programme that he thought the country was in a lot of trouble. Cuts in the Border Force, police marine units and the coastguard had, he said, created the "perfect storm". PCS union chief Mark Serwotka, quoted on the PoliticsHome website, said: "We have said for years that the Border Force doesn't have enough resources."

But former UK Border Force director Tony Smith believes responsibility for protecting Britain's coastline does not just lie with the Border Force. Speaking on Sky News, he explained that there are "16 different departments and agencies involved in coastal security" and that the key to improved security is "collaboration and cooperation".

In fact, British and French ministers are currently in talks about deploying marshals on cross-channel ferries, reports the Daily Telegraph, "amid fears that they are a 'weak link' in the fight against jihadi terrorists".

Earlier this week, French troops boarded a passenger ferry travelling from Portsmouth to Caen as part of a training exercise. French maritime spokesman Lieutenant Pierre-Joachim Antona told the Telegraph: "The mission is to act as police on these ships. It is one of surveillance, dissuasion and, if necessary, intervention."

Today's report also describes conditions at Calais migrant camps as "absolutely atrocious" and calls on the government to accept 157 unaccompanied children in Calais who have family members in the UK.