by Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic
A flotilla of ‘Little Ships’ crossing the English Channel to commemorate the Dunkirk evacuation was forced to divert so Border Force could escort a migrant boat to Britain. The Telegraph has the story.
The fleet of 66 boats set sail from Ramsgate, Kent, to Dunkirk at 6am on Wednesday to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo.
It was intended as a “poignant tribute to the bravery and sacrifice” of the Dunkirk evacuations, where 1,000 British pleasure boats were used in the rescue of more than 300,000 Allied soldiers from the Nazi advance.
But the commemorations were disrupted when Border Force and the French navy demanded that the flotilla be diverted to provide a one-nautical mile exclusion zone for a migrant boat.
The small boat, which had been launched from northern France, was being escorted across the Channel by the French navy and UK Border Force.
It comes as two migrants died on Wednesday attempting to cross the Channel in a boat packed with 80 people.
Wednesday was also estimated to be a record day for migrant crossings so far this year with more than 800 arrivals.