The Home Office in the UK has launched an initiative known as Operation Sillath to deport migrants who cross the Channel from France
The initiative is being carried out in response to rising numbers of people arriving in Britain in boats from France. There were 297 boat crossings by migrants in 2018, 1,890 in 2019 and at least 1,040 so far this year. On May 8, 145 people were picked up after crossing the Channel.
Human rights lawyers and campaigners say they have gathered evidence that under Operation Sillath migrants are being returned to France before their asylum claims have been properly considered. Under the Dublin convention, one EU country cannot send an asylum seeker back to another unless there is evidence that the migrant was fingerprinted and entered in the European-wide database known as Eurodac, claimed asylum or spent time in the first EU country before arriving in the second. As there was no evidence that any of the asylum seekers had spent a significant amount of time in France or had claimed asylum there, rights organisers claim the Home Office is acting in breach of the Dublin convention.
