A little more than a week after the Home Office began publishing figures on French efforts to stop small boat launches, the department has removed the data, in an embarrassing U-turn.
The Government has long produced data sets on the number of small boat migrants reaching the UK.
Just last week, the Home Office began publishing a new set of figures alongside the arrivals total.
That data showed another two columns with numbers of “Migrants prevented” and “Events prevented” relating to the activities of the French in stopping small boat launches.
Just last week, the Home Office began publishing a new set of figures alongside the arrivals total
GB News/Home Office
The figures revealed that French authorities had stopped more than 1,000 migrants from launching boats in multiple incidents since last week.
However, today the Home Office added a message under their latest arrivals figures stating: “After consultation with the French, we are pausing the publication of daily prevention data until further notice.
“We will continue to publish daily statistics on boat arrivals, by individuals and boats.”
The U-turn will be seen as embarrassing for the Home Office, which wanted to show the level of cooperation between French and UK authorities, and how effective police in France are being in preventing small boat launches.
The move to publish the French data had been criticised by migrant charities and human rights groups, who claimed the figures were “unreliable and misleading”.
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Data showed another two columns with numbers of “Migrants prevented” and “Events prevented” relating to the activities of the French in stopping small boat launches
Home Office
The Home Office later clarified that the figures were estimates based on an “operational snapshot collected by the French authorities.”
One maritime source told GB News: “This about-turn is obviously embarrassing for the Government.
“Clearly they wanted to show the unity and progress in the UK’s relationship with their French counterparts. But it has been little more than a week, and they’ve had to abandon that.”
The source also pointed to the fact that all of the previous week’s figures on French migrant preventions had “suddenly disappeared”.
“This is not just the Home Office no longer providing these figures going forward. They’ve removed all the figures since last week. That might point to a disagreement with the French over the use of that data. Either way, it’s an embarrassing U-turn.”
The two columns have since been removed
Home Office
The government’s decision to no longer provide a daily snapshot of French activity comes as the number of small boat migrants arriving in the UK is now around 9,000.
GB News can reveal another two small boats, carrying more than 100 migrants between them have arrived in UK waters this morning.
On those arrival figures, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel demonstrates exactly why we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground as soon as possible.
“We remain committed to building on the successes that saw arrivals drop by more than a third last year, including tougher legislation and agreements with international partners in order to save lives and stop the boats.”
