Thousands of migrants are preparing to cross the Channel to the UK over Christmas as weather conditions look set to improve, GB News Home and Security Editor Mark White has warned.
Border Force has been placed on high alert as calmer seas are expected for five to six days, beginning late Christmas Eve.
Exclusive footage obtained by GB News showed hundreds of migrants gathering at makeshift camps along the northern French coast, with many more expected to arrive as conditions improve.
“What we are expecting is thousands potentially to come across during that window in the weather,” White told GB News.
GB News has revealed hundreds of migrants gathered at a camp near Dunkirk as thousands are expected to cross the Channel
GB News
“The winds will be very light indeed. So ideal, although it’s cold out there, but ideal conditions in terms of being able to cross, because there will be very little in the way of wind,” White explained.
GB News producers counted more than 500 migrants at a single camp near Dunkirk at Grand Synth, with hundreds more spotted along nearby roads.
Detailing the camps, Mark told host Martin Daubney: “This is a place called Grand Synth, which is near Dunkirk. Just one camp alone had more than 500 people in.
“There are multiple camps in the Dunkirk area. Then you go further down the coast around the Calais area, more camps as far down as the Boulogne area. Thousands, not just hundreds, but thousands, are now massing along the northern coast of France.”
GB News exclusive footage shows hundreds of migrants camping near Dunkirk
GB News
Discussing the Labour Government’s desire to “smash the gangs” and organised networks enabling such crossings to the UK, Mark stressed that any plans put in place by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will “take time” to come into fruition.
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Mark stated: “Anything that Sir Keir Starmer implements is likely to take some significant time before it comes fully to fruition.
“But on the other hand, with the so-called deals that are being hatched with these countries around the globe, they were being hatched under Rishi Sunak as well.”
He added: “In fact, the vast majority are not deals to return people to those countries, but there are deals which is effectively a bit better cooperation between law enforcement agencies.”
Noting another “issue” for the Labour Government and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Mark told GB News that their claims of deporting 13,000 migrants are “disingenuous”, and is in fact a much smaller percentage.
White told GB News that the UK may see ‘thousands’ of migrants preparing to cross the Channel this Christmas period
GB News
Mark concluded: “They’ve been pointing to the fact that under Labour, they have returned some 13,000 people back to their home countries. This is completely disingenuous.
“Five per cent of those 13,000 people are people that arrived on small boats – the vast majority of people were visa overstayers that got into the country by other means, and foreign national offenders as well, having served their sentence and being returned to their own countries.
“A tiny proportion of those people that are being returned and that are being hailed as a triumphant enterprise by the Government, a tiny percentage, just five per cent, are people that came across on small boats.”