How to stop small boats crossing the English Channel
Run one ferry a month from Le Harve to Portsmouth, that anybody can get on for free, no questions asked when boarding.
Numbers would however be limited to the ferry's safe capacity.
This might be increased if the car decks could be made safe for passengers.
The People Smugglers will not be able to compete against this and will go out of business.
Most of these small boats send an SOS when they get to UK waters so that they can be rescued.
This is how we know how many people there are, (they aren't slipping in undiscovered).
While a few people may still want to use the Smugglers, perhaps because they are in the 10% that are not granted asylum when discovered, (and hope to avoid the authorities as soon as they are close enough to land), this would become unaffordable without the large numbers to spread the cost.
Instead of French Police patrolling the shores trying to spot the groups wanting to cross, and then not able to do anything, local councils along the coast could pay people to put the word out with the Ferry crossing dates.
If there are too many people to get on the Ferry the French Authorities can use the money they currently receive to stop people setting off, to accommodate this group until till the next Ferry leaves.
The people were living in France anyway.
All the people taking this crossing can be kept on the Ferry where they will be photographed, finger printed and DNA tested.
They then stay there while they are checked out.
Not the most comfortable accommodation but probably better than where they were.
If they have family ties to the UK that family can post a bond, (the money they were going to pay the People Smugglers), and take them in, we will know where they are, and if they abscond we have ID to look for them.
The remainder will fall into the system as it is now, and where they would have gone if discovered crossing in a small boat.
You may have other suggestions for which ports to operate from but I avoided Dover to Calais as I wanted somewhere less busy and inconvenient to most foot passengers.
Also, I thought Portsmouth, as a poorer area, might be willing to benefit economically by providing this service.
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