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<p>During 2018, over 500 migrants - mostly Iranian - attempted to travel to the UK
on small vessels. 80% of them attempted this in the last three months of the year.</p><p><br>As
a result, the Home Secretary redeployed two Border Force cutters from overseas to
the UK providing four cutters available to operate in channel UK waters. In addition
to the four cutters, Border Force has two Coastal Patrol Vessels on operation in the
English Channel.</p><p><br>However, this is not an issue that can be resolved by maritime
resources alone. Border Force Cutters form part of a layered approach to coastal defence,
including on-shore resources and intelligence and surveillance to detect efforts to
smuggle guns and drugs or facilitate illegal entry into the country.</p><p><br>But
we haven’t been doing this work alone. We have been working closely with French authorities
to tackle this issue. Around 40% of the attempts last year were either disrupted by
French law enforcement or returned to France via French agencies.</p><p><br>Through
these efforts, we reduced the number of individuals attempting the crossing from around
250 in December to around 90 in both January and February.</p>
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