The Conservatives say we need a new border police force, that we should limit the annual number of immigrants, prioritising those who benefit the economy. The French say we should let in all the would-be immigrants that gather outside Calais. Who’s right?

First let’s clear something up: we have a border police force, according to the home office website, anyway. It’s called the UK Border Agency, and apparently its officers have the following powers:

  • The power to board and search vehicles, planes,trains and vessels to search for people or goods.
  • The power to stop and question.
  • The power to detain an individual.
  • The power to arrest either with or without a warrant an individual who we believe is up to no good.

This must come as a surprise to the tories, who say on their website:

“Unlike Labour’s Border Agency, which does not even include the police, our force will have the power to stop, search, detain and prosecute the terrorists, traffickers and illegal immigrants who currently slip through the net. Only then will we be able to start making Britain safer.” (my emphasis)

Whether the UKBA is doing its job well enough is a different matter, one I’m not going to get deep into here. The question is, as France bulldozes the ‘Calais Jungle’, do we have an obligation to offer sanctuary to the hundreds of people who had the misfortune to call it their home?

This issue should not have got this far; arguably, plenty of those people should not have got this far. I’m not saying they don’t deserve somewhere to live, and I’m prepared to assume that the majority of them probably have genuine reasons to seek asylum. I’m just asking, as they crossed eastern Europe, perhaps via Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, across the Adriatic into Italy, into France, all the way up to Calais, how is it that they remained undetected all that way?

If France is prepared to accuse Britain of not doing its bit, how is it that these desparate men and women pass many other borders that, by the same argument, should be expected to catch them out?

Maybe they’re just the lucky ones, the most tenacious, committed and fortunate. But this isn’t some TV gameshow – you don’t get a prize just for making it this far. Britain isn’t obliged to let them in simply because they’ve showed up at the front door. This whole thing looks far too much like the French trying to sweep their mess under Britain’s mat, shrugging and saying ‘they’re your problem now’.

The saddest thing is that these people become pawns in the political brinkmanship that erupts. Pushed around literally and metaphorically, it might not be surprising that they try to get into Britain illegally. France takes plenty of immigrants, more than Britain, every year. But that doesn’t make it fair for them to wash their hands of the Calais squatters.

Harriet Harman was rightly ridiculed on Question Time last week when she suggested that these immigrants should have applied formally to Britain for asylum in their home countries. This is unlikely to be as easy as strolling to the post office and filling out a form. All European countries should, at their borders, allow them the chance to apply for asylum anywhere in the EU, under a centralised system. Coupled with better security everywhere, not just Dover/Calais, and you’re looking at a system that might just work better at keeping out illegal immigrants and giving a fair chance to those who deserve  it. Sounds expensive, but if you’re serious about the problem, you should be serious about the solution as well.