Mr Smith, an ex-Border Force chief said: ‘This was declared a critical incident by the Home Secretary last year. ‘In my experience critical incidents are declared in order to put out the fire if you like with a task force and that when the fire’s put out we return to business as normal. ‘It’s too enduring to be just a critical incident. I think this is becoming a major threat, I’m afraid, to the UK border.’ He said the crossings entail a ‘huge risk to life and limb, which should be our top priority in any case’. The committee heard that migrants are told by smugglers that if they get picked up by Border Force then they will get into the UK. Mr Smith said the Government needs to have a ‘very serious look’ at its capabilities. He said: ‘We haven’t really geared ourselves up to a major maritime threat like this either in terms of our infrastructure, our powers, our response capability or our international response capability with France. ‘This is all driven by money and smugglers. You need to send a very, very clear message that that’s not going to work.’
Migrants from France Part 17
