Royal Navy ships ‘too big' to stop migrants

SPECIALIST ships will be leased to intercept migrants crossing the English Channel – because Navy vessels are too big.

- Michael Knowles

Armed Forces minister James Heappey admitted Royal Navy ships sit too high above the water to help migrants out of dinghies safely.

He said the ships would be flanked by smaller vessels and Navy chiefs were “crunching on their calculators” to determine the number.

Boris Johnson is giving the military responsibility for overseeing Border Force and other government agencies in the Channel, in an attempt to stem the number of migrants coming to Britain.

Mr Heappey said in some cases the Navy needed to “shadow” migrant boats into shore and make arrests on the beach “because it would be too dangerous to do otherwise”.