‘Pushing back’ migrant boats: a sensible way to stamp out people-smuggling or a deeply ‘callous’ policy?

Priti Patel has secured new advice authorising Border Force to ‘push back’ migrant boats into French waters

Migrants disembark from a vessel in Calais
Migrants disembark from a vessel in Calais after being rescued from the Channel on 15 September
(Image credit: BERNARD BARRON/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 14,000 migrants have arrived in Britain illegally this year by crossing the Channel in small boats, said The Daily Telegraph. Many Britons are furious that people-smugglers are still making “a mockery of UK borders”.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, is “frustrated” too: she is threatening to “pull the plug” on a failing £54m deal with France to prevent migrants leaving its coast. She has also secured new advice from the Attorney General authorising Border Force to “push back” migrant boats into French waters: officials have been filmed using jet skis to turn around dinghies during practice drills off the Kent coast.

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