Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has called on Border Force to collect migrants currently in the English Channel and take them directly to Dover, amid concerns they could instead be brought ashore in Hampshire.
Jones issued the statement on Tuesday, 22 September, as another small boat was being monitored during a crossing from the French coast.
She called for Border Force to act “in the next hour” and use a UK cutter in the area to transfer those on board to Dover.
Jones said: “I am urging UK Border Force to collect the migrants in the Channel now, in the next hour, and transfer them to Dover via the water on a UK Cutter which is in the area.”
She said this was the assurance she had sought from the Home Secretary following the arrival of a large small boat in Portsmouth earlier this month.
Her intervention follows the 6 September incident when around 140 people were brought ashore in Portsmouth after an unusually long Channel crossing. Jones subsequently said Portsmouth was not equipped to receive and process arrivals in this way.
The PCC said Hampshire policing resources had already been placed under significant pressure by the previous arrival and subsequent protest activity.
She said: “Hampshire is not prepared or set-up to process people travelling into Britain this way, and the burden on the police to deal with the arrival and potential protest activity is unsustainable.”
Jones said she had written to the Home Secretary following the 6 September incident asking for action to prevent Hampshire becoming an established landing location.
She added that she was “deeply concerned” the government had not contacted her about any plans for further landings in Hampshire, while the local force could be required to provide the policing response.
“This is no way to run an operation like this,” she said.
Jones said the previous Portsmouth incident triggered large-scale protests and required the deployment of hundreds of police officers.
Official statements issued following the earlier incident confirm hundreds of officers were required during subsequent protest activity in Portsmouth.“Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary cannot repeatedly divert its resources to manage landings the county was never designed to receive,” Jones said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the eventual landing location for those involved in the latest Channel incident had not been officially confirmed.
