Take migrants crossing Channel to cruise liner and ship them back, says former immigration officer

A former Chief Immigration Officer says some migrants crossing the Channel should be taken to a cruise liner in international waters and shipped back to where they came from.

Kevin Saunders was the Chief Immigration Officer for Border Force in Calais from 2001 until 2016, and spoke to ITV News about the "over subscribed" migrant facility in Manston, Kent.

He explained the situation has worsened since around 700 suspected migrants were relocated to Manston from a migrant centre in Dover, which was attacked at the weekend by a man throwing flammable devices.

Mr Saunders said: "The best solution would be if we could persuade the French to come out onto the Channel.

"They have a very efficient force which are based in Bologne, lots of boats.

"If they came out onto the Channel and worked with us to stop the boats coming across the Channel. But the French won't do that. They're dead against it.

"Their argument is once the people are on the water, they can only intercept if those people are in danger of sinking."

Another idea of his suggests putting a cruise liner further down the Channel and shipping some migrants back home.

Using a cruise liner is an idea that's been suggested before

He explained: "This idea was raised about two years ago by a retired naval gentleman and the idea was basically laughed out of court.

"But I think it's time to revisit this. You could put a cruise liner in international waters, and that's the key, in international waters, so it would need to be further down the Channel.

"Then take all the people that are coming across the Channel to this cruise liner rather than the UK.

"So long as the boat isn't a British flag vessel I don't think you'd have a problem with asylum because if they haven't reached the UK, they can't claim asylum."

He says between 70 and 80% of the migrants coming to the UK are Albanians who he says have "no right to claim asylum".

He added: "We can remove Albanians because Albanians are not considered to be refugees. Albania is a perfectly safe country."

Those on the ship would then be "refused" and sailed back to Albania.

"However if you found people on the boat on the cruise liner that perhaps were Syrians or Iraqis or Ethiopians then unfortunately you would have to bring them ashore and process them the normal way," he added.

He said: "I am quite sure that people would object to it but let's face it people are objected to absolutely everything the government are trying to do anyway.

"It would free up masses of hotel accommodation in the UK. Although it would be expensive in the first instance to hire the cruise liner you wouldn't have the ongoing costs once you had removed these people back to Albania.

"Perhaps more importantly it really would send a message."

Mr Saunders' idea is not one that has been suggested by any government ministers yet.

It's understood the immigration centre at Dover has been closed on Monday, following that petrol bomb attack.