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Tory MPs claim migrants crossing Channel are 'invading' UK

Four men off the coast of France, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel on 7 August 2020: Getty
Four men off the coast of France, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel on 7 August 2020: Getty

A group of Conservative MPs says migrants crossing the English Channel are “invading” the country, one claiming they can simply “paddle in”.

A former child refugee condemned the Common Sense Group of Tory backbenchers for lacking “humanity and decency”, after it urged Priti Patel to get tougher – including by sending in Royal Navy warships.

A letter sent by a 25-strong group of MPs and peers reads: “It is strikingly clear that, rather than a 'hostile environment', invading migrants have been welcomed.”

The group also claims those arriving are being put up in “expensive hotels” and enjoying “immediate access” to financial help – although cash support for an asylum seeker is just £37.75 per week.

Gulwali Passarlay, who wrote an acclaimed book about escaping Afghanistan when he was a 12-year-old boy, said: “They have to look at themselves and have humanity and have decency.”

On the refugees crossing in fragile dinghies, he said: “These are people who are desperate, who have seen violence in countries, they are fleeing from places like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.”

But John Hayes, the Common Sense group’s chairman, defended the provocative language in the letter, telling The Independent: “People do feel it is an invasion.

“We are reflecting the sentiment of a very large number of people who feel this is the entry into our country of a large number of people illegally.

“From the perspective of legal migrants, it’s terribly insulting to have other people who can just walk in – or, in this case, paddle in.”

The letter was sent as Chris Philp, the immigration minister, met with French officials – but not a government minister – in Paris, to discuss a further crackdown.

His boss, the home secretary, has appointed a former Royal Marine as her ‘Clandestine Channel Threat Commander’, to draw up plans to block migrants coming over from France.

But the Ministry of Defence is still considering her request to deploy warships, after one official there branded the tactic “completely potty”.

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Priti Patel was warned that policies were increasing Channel crossings