Editorial: The ​Channel small boat migrant route is a minor way into the UK, yet it needs to be seen to be blocked

Morning View

The United Kingdom has a massive immigration problem, and the small boat crossings are only a minor part of the influx.

​Far more people are arriving by other routes, vast numbers of them legally, unlike the boats that cross the Channel, almost all of which are illegal.

The loss of control of immigration is due to many factors, a key one of which is the fact that London politicians pay lip service to public concerns about migration, then approve waves of incomers because particular sectors of the economy demand it.

The shambles makes a mockery of a central claim of the pro Brexit campaign, the the UK would regain control of its borders.

Yet at the same time, the small boat invasion from France is symbolically of the utmost significance.

It illustrates how Britain is not allowed to be in charge of who comes into the country. The courts have seen to it otherwise, and have put up endless obstacles to the removal of illegal entrants.

This is why the Rwanda policy, of using the African country to process illegal migrants, is so important – not that it is a brilliant plan but that it makes clear to judges that it is elected politicians and governments that make laws and rules, not the judges.

Disgracefully, it has been ruled that the Rwanda plan cannot apply to Northern Ireland. As Owen Polley writes opposite, this is evidence of the wide-ranging nature of the Irish Sea border.

New figures show that the number of migrants to have arrived in the UK in small boats across the Channel is approaching the 10,000 mark, more even than in the same period in in 2022 (8,693), the year that saw a record number of arrivals.

This route into the UK needs to be seen to be shut off and be seen not to work, and in a way that does not lead any migrants to think NI is an easy way to get to stay in the country.