The UK Home Secretary Priti Patel is due to speak to her French counterpart later this morning about further actions the UK and France can take to halt the boat crossings, Home Office minister Kevin Foster said.
Foster, the minister for future borders and immigration, said that it is a “dynamic situation” and the UK is offering its support to French authorities investigating the deaths of at least 27 people.
Asked about claims the tragedy was completely predictable, he says the “dangers are very obvious” when you have “people setting off in flimsy boats without proper life-saving gear, organised and facilitated by ruthless criminals.”
He said the tragedy highlights that the organisers of yesterday’s boat crossing would have just seen their passengers as “a profit-making opportunity”, adding this is why the authorities are “determined to smash this really evil business model”.
The crisis must be seen as a “shared problem” and the UK has been working with French authorities, who have already stopped 20,000 crossings this year, added Foster.
He said the UK wants to “go further” and ministers are looking at changing the law on asylum seekers and increasing the punishments for people smugglers.
