Patrick Christys: If people can’t prove who they are or where they’re from, then they must be sent somewhere else

It looks as though the Navy may be about to disobey a direct order to turn back migrant boats in the Channel.

As part of so-called Operation Red Meat Boris Johnson is putting the Navy in charge of the Channel, taking over from Border Force.

Now, I think it would have been better to call them Open Border Force to be honest, because more than 28,000 illegal migrants managed to make it to Britain last year and more than 550 migrants arrived in just the first two weeks of this year.

It’s clear something has to change. But the fact is, our current plans to bring in the Navy look like they've been drawn up on the back of a fag packet.

Priti Patel said pushing migrant boats back absolutely still remains government policy. The implication there is that the Navy will be brought in to enact that policy.

Border Force flat out refused to obey that order, so, presumably, the thinking is that the Navy would be more compelled to carry out instructions.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Numerous Navy sources have said that they simply won’t obey the orders.

In fact, Patel’s comments took them by surprise. One source said that no decisions have been made about how the Royal Navy would be deployed.

They said talks had been taking place with the government for numerous weeks but that the notion of pushing migrant boats back had not been discussed.

There are concerns that it may be illegal. If it is illegal then I have some sympathy for the Navy because, let’s be honest, nobody would want to find themselves in court having essentially committed a crime against humanity.

But, if it’s simply a question of ‘ethics’, then I’m very sorry but that’s not a good enough reason to disobey an order.

And. it looks like it might be about morals. In fact, one source told The Guardian: ‘I’m not sure pushback would work; it’s not part of our ethics.’

I can completely understand this – the fact is that pushing migrant boats back means more deaths in the Channel.

We’ll push them back, the French won’t take them, they’ll turn their motors off, the boats may eventually sink, the hypothermia sets in, we all know what happens next.

To be honest that’s the reason I have a bit of a problem with it.

There’s no two ways about it, if we operate a push back protocol, it does mean migrants die in the Channel.

And this is why I think it’s just hot air all over again from Boris and Priti.

Firstly, our Navy is now pretty small. We have obligation in the far pacific with Australia now, we have to have boats in the far north to patrol the waters there…do we actually have the capacity to shove a couple of warships in the Channel?

If they’re not going to push the boats back, then actually it could be humiliating for us.

Can you imagine the pictures of a dinghy full of illegal immigrants sailing through two warships before being towed to Dover…It would be a national embarrassment.

So I don’t see how it’s going to work in practice.

It does have the whiff of desperation about it.

Almost like Boris has, as a last ditch attempt to save his own skin, just blurted out Warships in the Channel. Just as a slight side note as well, this Operation Red Meat stuff also includes potentially defunding the BBC.

Right, ok, but if you really listen to Nadine Dorries she talked tough on Twitter but then stood in Parliament and said that the BBC actually just has to produce a report showing that it’s tackling bias.

Well I actually happen to know for a fact that this report is already being compiled.

In fact, Robbie Gibb, a non-executive board member at the BBC, is already going round media organisations and think tanks discussing the issue of BBC bias.

It’s almost like they knew this government announcement was coming, isn’t it.

But anyway, back to the Channel. It is looking increasingly unlikely that we’re really going to struggle to stop these boats coming across.

It seems unlikely that in practice this government, or our navy, would enforce a policy that directly led to migrant deaths, the French aren’t going to stop them and it doesn’t seem to matter how much money we throw at them.

So if people are going to keep coming, we need a proper fast-track deportation system.

These people may well set foot in Britain, but there needs to be huge detention centres built and rapid processing.

In my opinion, if people can’t prove who they are or where they’re from, then they must be sent somewhere else.

There is talk of Rwanda and Ghana being used as non-uk bases.

Well, I imagine that may have come as a shock to the people of Rwanda and Ghana but money talks at the end of the day and if we’re paying them to take these people then they’ll probably do it.

That’s the way now to solve our migrant crisis.

As it stands, illegal immigrants know that they can get to Britain, and once they’re here, they can stay here.

I don’t think putting the Navy in the Channel is going to stop them getting to Britain, so we have to make sure that they know that once they get here, if they’re not genuine asylum seekers, they can’t stay here.

It removes the incentive. And solves the problem.