French warship orders ferry to change course to escort migrants

EXCLUSIVE: French warship orders cross-Channel ferry to change course so it can escort small boats containing 90 migrants and hand them over to Britain

• Warship’s officer told ferry to make a detour so it could hand over 90 migrants
• Controversial manoeuvre delaying ferry’s journey happened in fog at 10.27am

A cross-channel ferry was forced to change route by a French warship on Easter Sunday so it could escort two migrant boats to the UK, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The P&O ferry Spirit of Britain was told to make the detour so the naval vessel could hand over 90 migrants to the Border Force craft Typhoon waiting to bring them to Dover.

The controversial manoeuvre, delaying the ferry’s journey, happened in thick fog at 10.27am.

In the message to the P&O ferry, the warship’s female officer says in stilting English: ‘I am currently ahead of you for three nautical miles. About to start operation with two small migrant craft and Border Force Typhoon. Is it possible for you to take a wide berth on your port side?’

The Spirit of Britain’s officer responds by correcting her estimated distance between the vessels saying it is five nautical miles. He adds: ‘Unfortunately, due to the shipping traffic we can’t come to port in restricted visibility. So, we will alter course to starboard.’

The P&O ferry Spirit of Britain (pictured in 2022) was told to make the detour so the naval vessel could hand over 90 migrants to the Border Force craft Typhoon waiting to bring them to Dover 

Charts show the ferry changing route to the right before returning to its course and entering Calais.

The French warship steams on, escorting the migrant boats to the border of French and English waters where Typhoon took them aboard and on to Dover just after 11am.

A private shipping company, under contract to the Government, picked up the abandoned migrant boats at the same spot and brought them to Kent later in the morning.

Charts reveal the warship, A602, had been on search and rescue operations to find migrant boats leaving the coast near the port of Gravelines since 5.31am on Sunday.

But, instead of turning the overcrowded rubber boats back to France, the warship can be seen escorting them towards Britain.

Vessel-tracking websites show the warship and Typhoon liaising mid-Channel for the handover. The British coastguard, based in Kent, was heard by fishermen inquiring about the progress of the transfer and the altered Spirit of Britain’s route on various public radio channels on Sunday morning.

Fishermen said that the incident, which happened in the world’s busiest shipping lane, was a ‘dangerous operation which could have cost lives of migrants and seamen’.

One fishing boat skipper said: ‘Visibility was down to 100 metres because of heavy fog. The French warship made an erratic course through the shipping lane after telling the ferry to get out of its way.

‘The sole aim of the operation seemed to be getting the two migrant boats out of French waters and handed over to the British as swiftly as possible.’ A trawler skipper told the Mail from the Channel: ‘This operation should not have been happening in the foggy conditions.’

In the message to the P&O ferry, the warship’s female officer says in stilting English: ‘I am currently ahead of you for three nautical miles. About to start operation with two small migrant craft and Border Force Typhoon. Is it possible for you to take a wide berth on your port side?’

The French warship steams on, escorting the migrant boats to the border of French and English waters where Typhoon (pictured in 2022) took them aboard and on to Dover just after 11am

Numbers of migrants (pictured on an inflatable craft last year) reaching Britain have risen in a spell of calm, if foggy, weather

The skipper added: ‘The migrant boats ought to have been stopped by the French Navy from leaving France in such bad weather. The enthusiasm for search and rescue operations by the French even in very low visibility at sea is extraordinary.

‘They appear to be ‘grazing’ the waters off Calais and Dunkirk until they find a migrant boat and then escorting it directly towards the UK.’

Numbers of migrants reaching Britain have risen in a spell of calm, if foggy, weather. In the week to Monday, traffickers sent more than 1,000, including 180 in four boats on Easter Sunday – two of which were escorted by the French warship. The Home Office, under pressure to remove 51,000 boat migrants from 400 UK hotels, is scrambling to find housing for the never-ending arrivals.

It has proposed sites for 5,406, including a barge in Dorset, RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, a Ministry of Defence site in Essex and a former prison in East Sussex.

The UK has agreed to pay £480million over three years to beef up measures by the French to stop crossings.

There is to be a new detention centre near Calais and beach patrols have been increased.

But there has been no agreement to return migrants to France despite a special summit between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and president Emmanuel Macron. The Home Office was approached for comment.

Source: Read Full Article