Hampshire police and crime commissioner Donna Jones reveals cost of policing anti-migrant protests - as boat thought to be headed to Gosport
Donna Jones says every protest costs £150,000 to police
Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner Donna Jones has revealed the financial burden that policing migrant boat arrivals is placing on the force’s budget.
In a video message released this evening, Mrs Jones repeated her call that Border Force deals with migrant arrivals and transports them to Dover by sea, regardless of which stretch of the south coast they arrive on.
She also said that it costs Hampshire Constabulary £150,000 to police anti-migrant protests. Recently there has been a migrant arrival at Eastney on September 6, a proposed arrival in Gosport on September 22 which at the last minute saw the asylum seekers taken to Dover instead, plus anti-migration marches in Portsmouth city centre last month and Southampton yesterday, all of which have used large amounts of policing resources.
Mrs Jones said: “On each one of the protests that are happening every time we have one of these threats of a small boat landing, it is costing me £150,000 of taxpayers’ money from my police budget, which I can ill afford to spend. That means it's less police officer time, police in the streets of our communities, across Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight.”
She also said: “I am calling today, again, on the Home Secretary to ensure that UK Border Force has the correct size vessels to be able to transfer these people safely on the water, and take them to Dover for processing.
“At the moment, the Home Office is working with agencies across the coastline of southern England, in particular, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary, to try and find a landing place for this vessel.
“Now, it may not be in Hampshire. I want to stress, it may not be Hampshire, but that vessel is coming in. It is a large vessel, and today, the sea conditions have been ideal to be bringing people over.
“This has got to stop. We need to be sending a message to people's smugglers - it doesn't matter where in Northern France, You cast off these illegal dinghies, bringing people into this country, breaking the law... you will end up in Dover, regardless.
“So, my message today is this, Home Secretary, if you or any members of your immigration team are listening, we urgently need you to take action.
“We need UK Border Force to have the right vessels to be able to safely transfer people from these large dinghies onto UK Border Force ships to take them into Dover for processing, setting up additional landing sites anywhere on the coastline of southern England is a false economy.”