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simple answer. But pretending the problem is simple will not solve it. So this book will try to do something different. It will start with the facts. It will ask what Britain is currently doing. It will examine what is working and what is not. It will look at the money being spent, the agreements being made, the asylum system, returns, people-smuggling organisations and the countries involved. Then, most importantly, it will ask: **What could Britain actually change?** Not violent action. Not vigilantism. Not attacking people. Not blaming an entire religion or nationality for the actions of individuals. Those things solve nothing. The aim is to look at practical measures that a democratic country could introduce through law, government policy and international cooperation. Some ideas may be expensive. Some may be unpopular. Some may require new agreements with other countries. Some may fail. And some may work. But if Britain is going to reduce irregular migration, the public deserves more than slogans. It deserves to understand the problem. And then it deserves an honest discussion about the possible solutions. # Chapter Two. ## Why Can't Britain Simply Stop the Boats? If you have watched the small boats arriving on British beaches, the first question that probably comes to mind is very simple: **Why don't we just stop them?** It sounds like an easy question. Britain is an island. The boats have to cross the English Channel. Surely a country with a modern navy, coastguard, police force and border agency should be able to prevent them from reaching our shores. The reality is more complicated. The first problem is that the people making these journeys are not usually organising them themselves. Behind many Channel crossings are criminal people-smuggling organisations. They arrange the boats, collect money from passengers and organise the journeys. The people making the crossing may have travelled a very long way before they ever reach the French coast. The smugglers have one important advantage. They do not have to obey the law. They can change their routes, change their boats, change their launch points and change their methods whenever the authorities begin to catch up with them. And the Channel itself is a difficult place to police. It is busy. Commercial ships cross it every day. Fishing boats operate there. Ferries travel between Britain and France. The weather can change quickly. There are also French territorial waters and British territorial waters, as well as international maritime rules that govern what authorities can and cannot do. So the answer is not simply to send British boats out and physically stop every small boat that appears. There is another problem. **What happens to the people on the boat?** Suppose a British vessel intercepts a small boat in the Channel. There may be dozens of people aboard. Some could be children. Some may claim they are refugees. Some may be ill or in danger. The authorities have responsibilities towards people whose lives may be at risk at sea. The situation therefore becomes a mixture of border control, maritime safety, immigration law and asylum law. That is one reason the issue is so difficult. But there is another question that is just as important. **Why are people willing to pay smugglers to make the journey in the first place?** A person does not normally pay thousands of pounds to climb into a small, overcrowded boat because the journey sounds attractive. They believe that reaching Britain will give them something they want badly enough to take the risk. For some, that may be protection from danger. For others, it may be family connections. For