Britain’s armed forces have been asked to help deal with boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday after a spate of arrivals on the southern English coast. The Defence Ministry said it had received a formal request from the Home Office, or interior ministry, to assist the UK Border Force with its operations in the Dover Straits. “We are assessing the requirements and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist,” the defence ministry said in a statement. France’s interior ministry said surveillance teams on the northern coast were intercepting migrants daily and it had mobilized extra resources. It said five times as many migrant boats had been caught between January and July compared with the same period in 2019.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 09, 2020 09:33 UTC