Patel's Policy To Push Back Migrant Boats Won't Work

When Priti Patel, the home secretary, announced plans to push back boats in the Channel, many observers including The Independent said it would not work.

- John Rentoul

When Priti Patel, the home secretary, announced plans to push back boats in the Channel, many observers including The Independent said it would not work. As we reported last week, this has turned out to be the case, as Border Forces have narrowed the circumstances in which the policy could be applied to conditions that are unlikely to be met in practice. These include a willingness of French vessels on the other side of the sea border to receive the boats that are being turned back, which French authorities say they are not prepared to do.

It is beginning to look as if the push-back policy was yet another unworkable device designed to gain headlines rather than to solve the problem. It joins the embarrassment of suggestions from the Home Office of using wave machines or offshore processing centers on Ascension and St Helena, which may be intended to suggest that the government is trying to deal with the issue but succeed mainly in drawing attention to its lack of grip.