More and more boat migrants

[Easy-X]

A reminder that the swashbucklers are paid for out of the overseas aid budget:

Government struggles to cut foreign aid spent on asylum hotels

So at least all that money previously wasted abroad is being spent domestically. Small comfort.
____________________
Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Ste]

"As the weather in the Channel clears, the French police are struggling to halt a potentially record-breaking surge of people from reaching the UK in small boats organised by a growing network of smuggling gangs. Downing Street said on Tuesday the situation was "deteriorating."

Although the French authorities claim they're now intercepting more than two thirds of those boats before they reach the sea, the smugglers are now changing tactics to launch so-called "taxi boats" from new sites, in new ways, and with ever greater speed.

Instead of inflating their boats in the dunes along the coast, close to police patrols, the gangs are launching them from better hidden locations, often dozens of kilometres from the main departure beaches.

They then cruise along the coastline, like taxis or buses, picking up their paying customers who now wait in the sea, out of reach of the police.

....

On Friday morning, Colonel Olivier Alary stood, dry-footed, watching the taxi boat load up. He explained that the current operational rules for his forces were clear. They would intervene to rescue someone if they were about to drown. They might even attempt to stop the boat if it became trapped on a sandbank. But it was simply too risky, for all involved, for the police to try to reach the boat now it was afloat.

"The police will be able to do more… if the rules governing our actions at sea are changed," said Alary, referring to the French government's declared intention to revise those rules, possibly in the coming weeks, to give the police more leeway.

"It's essential that we don't create panic and endanger these people further. If the rules change to allow us to intervene against these taxi boats, as close as possible to the shore, then we'll be able… to be more effective," said Alary, as the fully loaded boat finally set off north-westwards, towards the English coast.

Although some officers say there is already some wiggle-room for the police in terms of how strictly they interpret the existing rules, many are fearful that they might face serious legal trouble.

"I can understand an average British person watching this on television might say, 'Damn, those police don't want to intervene.' But it's not like that. Imagine people on a boat panic and we end up with children drowning. The police officer who intervened would end up in a French court. It's a complicated business, but we can't fence off the entire coastline. It's not the Second World War," said Marc Musiol, of the police union, Unity.

"If we don't have the orders, we don't move. Even if there's one centimetre of water, we don't intervene. It's frustrating," said his union colleague, Marc Alegrè.

As a result, the French forces, now patrolling more than 120km (75 miles) of coastline in northern France, focus all their attention on trying to intercept the smugglers' boats before they launch.

And while that interception rate is rising, the smugglers are changing their own tactics fast."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd1l6p8vw9o

[to v or not to v]

[jeremyr62]

[Raffles]