Channel migrants: Only five migrants returned to Europe this year

Only five people who crossed the English Channel to Kent in small boats have been returned to the EU so far this year, MPs have heard.

Tom Pursglove, an immigration minister, said there had been "difficulties securing returns".

The Home Affairs Select Committee heard the number has fallen from several hundred a year before Brexit, when an agreement was in place to return them.

Mr Pursglove said boats are now the "route of choice".

The minister for both the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice said small boats were now being launched from a 200km (125 mile) stretch of the French coast, compared to 50km (30 miles) in the past.

Before Brexit, the UK was part of an EU returns deal known as the Dublin agreement.

Mr Pursglove said: "There is not a returns agreement with the European Union in place at the moment.

"You will appreciate that there have been some difficulties around securing returns, not least as a consequence of Covid."

He rejected suggestions migrants should be offered safe routes to the UK so they can claim asylum.

"All the individuals we see arriving are coming from what are safe countries with perfectly functioning asylum systems, which act in accordance with the refugee convention," he said.

"Nobody needs to get in a small boat to come to this country."

More than 23,000 people have arrived in the UK this year after crossing the Channel in small boats. This is almost three times the total of around 8,500 in 2020.

Dan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Threat Commander for the Home Office, told the committee the idea of using marine fencing to block boats from UK beaches had been looked at and rejected as unsuitable.

Other ideas reported in the media, such as nets and wave machines, had never been considered, he said.

He told the committee that "push back" tactics that are "safe" had been developed, but refused to discuss exactly what they were, or whether a lack of cooperation from France had prevented the them being used.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]