Border Force strike vote adds pressure as UK grapples with Channel crossings

Border Force staff on the front lines of tackling the migrant crisis threatened to strike, delivering another blow to Sir Keir Starmer's effort to curb small-boat crossings. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will vote in the coming weeks on whether to take industrial action, with ballots expected to cover officers who patrol the Channel and identify vessels involved in smuggling or crossings by small boats.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: "It is a disgrace that our members have been waiting six years for this situation to be resolved. Although it's shameful that managers need a strike ballot to focus their minds, it's clear that our members are not prepared to be messed around any longer."

Today, at least 400 people crossed the Channel in five small boats before they were brought to Dover on RNLI and Border Force ships. The people smugglers were taking advantage of a break in the rainy conditions, which had prevented crossings from taking place over the past week. A marine tracker showed at least two other UK search and rescue vessels were in the Channel following the day’s crossings.

Meanwhile, a third person has been removed from the UK under the 'one in, one out' deal with France aimed at stopping small-boat crossings. Home Office sources said the man, an Iranian, had been returned to France on Friday. This followed the removal of an Eritrean man earlier on Friday after he lost a High Court bid to halt his removal, and the deportation of an Indian national on Thursday. The first flights carrying asylum seekers from France to the UK under the deal are expected to take place next week, with officials noting the numbers are likely to be at or near parity given the deal’s one-for-one structure.

Ministers have praised the returns, with Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy saying they provided an "immediate deterrent" to people seeking to cross the Channel. A Border Force vessel arrives at the Marina in Dover, south-east England, on September 19. Lammy said this morning: "It has been very important to increase the numbers of people that we are returning to the countries from which they are from, and that's gone up 14 per cent... I played an important role in that as foreign secretary and that work must continue. This pilot with France is a milestone because it sends an immediate deterrent to people, many of them coming obviously across the water, that we will send them back, and it is our hope to see that grow over the coming months and years because we have to bear down on the gangs and we have to smash the model effectively and we have to ensure that those who do not have a right to be here are sent back to the countries from which they are from."