It is 7.45am in the middle of the English Channel and Nigel Farage has found what he came looking for.
Two hundred yards away a grossly overcrowded dinghy is pulled up alongside the smart-looking Border Force cutter Hurricane, about to unload its contingent of 78 migrants who left from a French beach a few hours earlier.
We are so close that the shouts of Border Force officials can be heard, apparently telling the migrants not to trample over each other as they scramble towards the Union Jack on the side of a vessel which is likely to become a ticket to a new life in the UK.
For the previous 90 minutes we had watched as a French Naval vessel escorted the craft to the edge of British territorial waters for what is known in the trade as a ‘handover’.
As the dinghy moved closer it was possible to see just how packed it was. Migrants sat on the edge each side with one foot dangling in the water. On board there was barely a square inch of room.
Nigel Farage out on the English Channel on Thursday, fishing and commenting on migrant crossings as he spots a small boat on the horizon
As the craft approached the Hurricane, the French Navy ship sent a message saying it wanted to retrieve the 40 life jackets it had handed to the migrants on the way out. Normally they are sent back from Dover. But officials on both sides were anticipating a very busy day of crossings and the French wanted them back quickly, so a rigid inflatable was sent out to collect them while the migrant boats was still in the water. It is entirely possible they will be worn by another set of migrants by the end of today.
We have witnessed what many would consider to be a crime, yet both the French and British authorities appear only too happy to help. In fact the French, in particular, are far more put out by our presence, observing from a hired fishing boat, than they are by yet another huge contingent of people crossing the Channel illegally. At one point the warnings become so aggressive that our captain is worried we might be boarded.
Mr Farage describes the shocking scene as a ‘classic demonstration of what is happening on every good weather day in the Channel’.
‘The sheer cost and scale of it and the level of co-operation between the French and British governments is outrageous,’ he says.
‘What is happening – what we have seen this morning – is a crime, yet everyone seems happy. The French have got their lifejackets back so they’re happy. The Border Force are happy. And the 78 people on board the dinghy are happy because they’re now headed for a comfy life at our expense.
‘We have given the French £800million since 2014 to deal with this and yet they are effectively aiding and abetting criminal gangs.’
If the polls are right, Mr Farage is on course to be Britain’s next prime minister. He would be within his rights to spend the day holed up in his office preparing a response to new migrant deal being announced later by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.
UK Border Force helps a migrant boat get to British shores, as seen by Nigel Farage and Jason Groves
Instead, he has chosen to come and see the problem first-hand – something he has been doing for the last five years.
On the journey out of Dover he had warned we might see nothing – after all, if there was ever a day when the French and British authorities might be expected to make an effort to stop the boats it was surely when the Prime Minister and President were due to hold a high-level summit on the issue. Surely they would not allow the conference to play out against another embarrassing day of crossings?
He need not have worried. It was a perfect day for crossing – warm, calm and, most importantly, still – what the authorities now term a ‘red day’ because of the high risk of small boat crossings. Summit or no summit, it was business as usual on the Channel.
Mr Farage says the smugglers’ boats have become bigger, less seaworthy and more crowded since he first watched them coming ashore at Dungeness, in Kent. Meanwhile, the British and French authorities have developed a well-tuned and expensive routine for chaperoning the migrants across – a process that helps ensure their safety but which also helps shield their arrival from the public eye by making sure they are never filmed scrambling ashore.
Mr Farage believes the migrants themselves have become ‘more dangerous’ – to the point where he believes it is time for the government to take emergency powers to deal with the crisis. He points to reports that three Iranians suspected of involvement in a plot to blow up the Israeli Embassy and warnings by Whitehall troubleshooter Dame Louise Casey that some asylum seekers are being investigated for alleged grooming gang activity as evidence that the Channel crisis is no longer just a border security issue, but also a criminal justice matter.
‘I have been trying to wake people up about this for years,’ he says. ‘I warned there would be an invasion unless there was a proper deterrent and that is what we are seeing.
Nigel Farage said, ‘I warned there would be an invasion unless there was a proper deterrent and that is what we are seeing’, after witnessing 78 people make the crossing
The Border Force’s Hurricane clipper helps migrants get on board while their French escort looks on
‘We have just seen 78 people cross; 74 are men and we have no idea who they are. Some of them may be terrorists, they may commit sexual offences, we just don’t know. What we do know is they are going to be put up at a hotel at our expense and they will probably be working in the gig economy within 48 hours. We just cannot allow that.’
Warming to his theme, he goes on: ‘I now genuinely believe this is a national security emergency. If Starmer declared a state of emergency – he won’t, but he should – he would not have to abide by the ECHR or UN conventions and we could deal with this properly
‘Everyone on that boat should not be allowed to walk our streets tomorrow. They should be interned in an old army camp or wherever.’
He makes clear that he would be prepared to be significantly tougher, including pulling out of international treaties to allow the immediate deportation of all Channel migrants. If that were to fail, even more drastic methods might be on the cards.
‘We are getting close to the point where we are just going to have to tow them back to France. It will cause a huge fuss and it would be a last resort, but it may be the Royal Marines are going to have to get involved,’ he says. ‘We have to stop this.’
In between tending his fishing rod, with which he hauls in a bucketful of shimmering mackerel, Mr Farage is scathing about the latest UK-France effort to stop the boats.
Farage takes his boat out for fishing on the Channel often and has been watching the crossings for years
Farage brings home buckets full of mackerel as he sails the Channel
The idea of a ‘one in, one out’ returns deal is ‘farcical’, he says.
‘The UK courts probably won’t allow it, but even if they did It will only ever be a small percentage and if I’m paying 3,000 euros to cross the Channel and I have a 95 per cent chance of staying then I am going to carry on taking that chance. It is humiliating that Starmer is even considering it.’
Polls routinely show the public are angry about the small boats crisis. It is hard to escape the conclusion they would be angrier still if they knew the true cost – and if they could see the cosy way in which the French and British authorities are allowing the dangerous and illegal practice to thrive.
No wonder they want to conduct the handover at sea, far away from prying eyes.
