Priti Patel Blames Schengen Agreement for 'Mass Migration Crisis' in UK

Migrant flows to the UK show no sign of abating, with more than 24,500 illegal migrants already having entered the country, a figure almost triple the number of arrivals for all of 2020.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has for the first time admitted her country is facing a "mass migration crisis", pointing the finger at the EU over its open border policy.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Patel berated the European Commission for failing to hammer out an effective plan on resolving migration-related issues.

Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel appears on BBC TV's The Andrew Marr Show in London, Britain May 23, 2021

© REUTERS / JEFF OVERS/BBC

"They lead on this and member states are told that they have to work through the commission and currently there is not a single united position on how to tackle this across EU member states", the British home secretary said.

She argued that migration has been fuelled by free movement within the EU under the Schengen Agreement, which scrapped national borders among the bloc's member states.

"Let's not forget that the real problem on illegal migration flows is the EU has no border protections whatsoever. […] Other countries have to do much more in terms of border protections and this is the point. Schengen is free movement, Schengen is open borders, they do not have border controls and border checks", Patel claimed.

The home secretary insisted that all this leaves France "overwhelmed", adding: "When you think about the [migrant] flows, what are they [the French authorities] doing? They are absolutely patrolling the beaches [but] I would maintain the numbers are so significant that have they got enough resources? We are constantly pressing France on this".

When asked whether the £54 million ($74 million) the UK earlier pledged France to tackle migrants was value for money given that over 12,000 refugees have crossed the Channel since the Paris-London deal in July, Patel said: "It's not about value for money. There is a mass migration crisis. You have people coming from the Sahel, you have them coming from Libya, right into Italy, Greece".

She stressed that illegal migration is "a whole of Europe problem" rather than "just a UK-France issue" and that "no one is more angry and frustrated about this and myself alongside the British taxpayers".

"The sad thing is that obviously for the British public, there's no silver bullet [to solve the migration issue], it can't come in overnight", Patel acknowledged.

France Refutes UK's '100%' of Channel Crossing Prevention Claims

The home secretary's comments followed the French Embassy in London rejecting British claims that London and Paris had concluded an agreement to prevent "100 percent" of migrant Channel crossings into Britain from France.

The statement came in response to the Home Office claiming that Priti Patel's recent talks with French counterpart Gerald Darmanin resulted in a deal stipulating that "more must be done to stop the dangerous [Channel] crossings".

The sides also purportedly agreed "to accelerate the delivery of the commitments made in the joint agreement of July 2021 to deliver on their joint determination to prevent 100% of crossings and make this deadly route unviable".

The developments follow The Times citing unnamed sources as saying in late September that the efficacy of Patel's much-touted new policy to clamp down on illegal migrant crossings had been put in doubt by a recent assessment from her own department. The Home Office assessment ostensibly warned that the new measures might prompt migrants "to attempt riskier means of entering the UK".

This was preceded by Patel vowing that the new measures, outlined in the yet-to-be-okayed Nationality and Borders Bill, which has passed its second reading in the House of Commons, would "break the business model" of people-trafficking gangs that arrange illegal crossings to the UK.

The new legislation would also make it a criminal offence to enter the UK without permission, with the maximum sentence rising from six months to four years and a maximum of a life sentence for convicted people smugglers - up from the present limit of 14 years.

Additionally, a separate clause in the new bill will broaden the offence of arriving unlawfully to encompass arrival, as well as entry into the UK. According to the document, the measures are aimed at cracking down on "asylum shopping", when some migrants "pick the UK as a preferred destination over others".

The Home Office is meanwhile due to confirm a new record for migrant crossings in a single day, when a further 1,185 people crossed the English Channel in small boats last Thursday to enter Britain. More than 24,500 migrants have already arrived in the UK this year, versus the 8,417 in the whole of 2020.