LONDON: Nearly 1,000 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats on Saturday, the UK government said Sunday, as growing numbers of arrivals have exacerbated tensions between Britain and France.
The defense ministry said 960 migrants were detected making the dangerous crossing in 20 boats.
This came after 1,295 migrants were spotted making the crossing on August 22, setting a new record for a single day.
The issue has caused a major political headache for the UK government, which promised tighter border controls after leaving the European Union.
Tensions have risen between London and Paris, with the UK government accusing France of not doing enough to stop the crossings.
So far this year there have been more than 26,000 crossings, while now is the peak time of year for those attempting to enter the UK this way.
Over the whole of 2021 just over 28,500 migrants were detected in around 1,000 boats.
The UK last month vowed to speed up removals of Albanians illegally entering the country as official statistics showed they were now the largest single group making small-boat crossings of the Channel.
In previous years, asylum seekers from war zones made up the vast bulk of small-boat arrivals.
Nearly 1,000 migrants cross Channel Saturday: UK govt
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Nearly 1,000 migrants cross Channel Saturday: UK govt
- Tensions have risen between London and Paris, with the UK government accusing France of not doing enough to stop the crossings
- The UK has vowed to speed up the removal of Albanians illegally entering the country as they are the largest single group making small-boat crossings
NATO wants ‘automated’ defenses along borders with Russia: German general
- That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone,” said Lowin
- The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said
FRANKFURT: NATO is moving to boost its defenses along European borders with Russia by creating an AI-assisted “automated zone” not reliant on human ground forces, a German general said in comments published Saturday.
That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone” where traditional combat could happen, said General Thomas Lowin, NATO’s deputy chief of staff for operations.
He was speaking to the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The automated area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, land-based robots, as well as automatic air defenses and anti-missile systems, Lowin said.
He added, however, that any decision to use lethal weapons would “always be under human responsibility.”
The sensors — located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” — would cover an area of several thousand kilometers (miles) and detect enemy movements or deployment of weapons, and inform “all NATO countries in real time,” he said.
The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said.
The German newspaper reported that there were test programs in Poland and Romania trying out the proposed capabilities, and all of NATO should be working to make the system operational by the end of 2027.
NATO’s European members are stepping up preparedness out of concern that Russia — whose economy is on a war footing because of its conflict in Ukraine — could seek to further expand, into EU territory.
Poland is about to sign a contract for “the biggest anti-drone system in Europe,” its defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Kosiniak-Kamysz did not say how much the deal, involving “different types of weaponry,” would cost, nor which consortium would ink the contract at the end of January.
He said it was being made to respond to “an urgent operational demand.”
