Crime commissioner warns of more migrants targeting Portsmouth
The commissioner said Portsmouth is “not set up for it”
Hampshire and Isle of Wight police and crime commissioner Donna Jones has raised concerns of Portsmouth and other southern areas being targeted by migrants.
She told BBC’s Today programme it will be a “significant issue” for the Government if people traffickers shift their destinations across England’s south coast following overnight protests in Portsmouth after the arrival of around 140 migrants. Ms Jones said “we’re not set up for it” in Portsmouth after saying the Government had “invested heavily into Dover” to deal with the situation there.
The police and crime commissioner said: “We have hundreds of miles of coastline across southern England and if Dover is no longer the destination of choice, and instead there is going to be a spread across southern England, this is a significant issue for the Government.
“My concern now, as a police and crime commissioner, is that we don’t have this repeated.”
In response to the protests in Dover and Portsmouth, Treasury Chief Secretary Emma Reynolds told LBC Radio: “This is thuggish and intimidating behaviour. This is not peaceful protest.
“Obviously, as a politician, I absolutely support people’s right to peaceful protest. But this crosses a line and I just want to take the opportunity to thank the police and other emergency services who have brought this under control.
“We do not want to see this kind of behaviour anywhere, frankly.”
She added: “The British people do have legitimate concerns about immigration.”
But “net migration is down” and “the level of boat crossings is at a seven-year low”.
She said the criminal gangs were changing their tactics to use larger boats “and we are changing ours accordingly”.
“We’re working in partnership with the French police. It seems that the people smugglers are also moving towards the west, towards western France, and we’re alive to that too,” she added.