There has been anger towards Dover MP Natalie Elphicke after comments she made following a tragedy that occurred in the Channel last night.
Four people died early on Wednesday morning after a migrant dinghy got into difficulties crossing the English Channel on a freezing night. A fishing crew nearby spotted the dinghy sinking in icy waters between Kent and France just after 03:00 GMT. The fishing boat captain pulled his boat alongside and his crew hauled 31 people to safety in a dramatic rescue operation.
MP Natalie Elphicke said earlier this morning that ‘unfortunately organisations like Care4Calais are part of the problem, not the solution in dealing with the Channel crossings.’
This caused Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Dover and Deal to jump on to social media to say ‘Some really vile, desperate stuff from @NatalieElphicke. On a day of tragedy, she points blame at a Charity. The MP for Dover & Deal is not fit for purpose. Nasty stuff!’
The Dover MP had only been updating social media just yesterday regarding the issues with Channel crossings, as she wrote ‘It’s welcome news that the Prime Minister has agreed a new deal for fast-tracking Albanian small boat returns. Albanians comprise about a third of all nationalities making the small boats crossings over the last few months.’
She continued ‘But unless France steps up and stops the boats getting in the water and tackles the criminal gangs, my fear is that we will simply end up seeing one nationality replaced by another and the small boats continue to arrive – as we have seen happen year after year.’
It may not be directly the charity’s fault for the continued crossings, but perhaps Natalie needs to look a bit closer, towards her own cabinet. The Government have agreed flimsy deals with the French, which just do not work.
On top of that, we are accommodating the migrants for months and giving them free handouts. The final straw is that a large percentage are being granted asylum in the UK, which is encouraging others to make the crossing.
Charities like Care4Calais are make life more bearable for the migrants, but it is not their fault that so many thousands are still attempting the crossing. They have been involved in legal disputes with sending migrants to Rwanda, but the migrants are already on our shores by this point.
Until the UK makes a tough stance to stop immigration and have a number of qualifying criteria, like Australia do, then the crossings are going to continue. Now it is proven that the crossings are going continue all year round, including during the freezing winter, perhaps the Government may now need to act!
