I would have thought the French would want to stop the dangerous criminal boat businesses from their beaches. They act as a magnet meaning too many people congregate near the beaches and live rough close to their ports and seaside settlements. Do the people of France want these unhappy camps? Do they not have a better legal answer for the residents there? Are they happy with such settlements in their neighbourhoods?
It also means they fail to tackle obvious criminality by the boat organisers.
The criminals who run the boat services are doubtless breaking some or all of the following laws
1 Offering sea passages for fares without a licence
2 Overloading boats , risking the passengers
3 Using unsuitable boats for Channel conditions
4. Failing to keep a manifest of the passengers
5. Failing to declare revenue and profits to the tax authorities
6 Using the proceeds of crime
7 Aiding people seeking to break migration laws
8 Accepting passengers without a valid passport or travel document
9 Launching passenger boats and embarking passengers without a proper jetty or pier
10 Encouraging or assisting people into illegal work on arrival at destination.
They may well be committing even more serious crimes if they do lose passengers overboard or lose the boat, or if their activities spread into other illegal businesses.
It should not take UK encouragement and money to get these laws enforced.
It should be possible for the French authorities to see these boats leaving with too many people on which they should intercept. Their intelligence services should be following the money and working out the big business gangs behind much of this. They could be mystery shoppers asking rates and times of crossings. They could be talking to people in the camps and woods by the sea about ways for them to get a better life legally.
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