WATCH: Former UK Border Force Director delivers 'simple solution' to UK migrant crisis

GB News

Former UK Border Force Director General Tony Smith has outlined what he describes as straightforward methods to halt migrant Channel crossings, speaking to GB News from an international border management conference in Estonia.Smith proposed deploying satellite tracking technology and floating barriers similar to those used on the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico.The Government faces criticism for publishing weather data to explain record Channel crossing numbers. The data, released today for the first time, is expected to show more "red days" - calm conditions favourable for crossings.READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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00:00go to tarlin in estonia and speak to the former director general of the uk border force tony

00:06smith who has written in the telegraph today just how the french can help to stop the boats he's a

00:12man with a plan and dare you use the phrase tony smith it sounds like another ready plan

00:16it sounds one that's ready to go you reckon you can crack this you've got the technology

00:22you've halted a similar crisis in the early 2000s and the blair regime you think you can

00:27sort this out talk us through it mate well i can't sort it out unless the parties agree

00:33to my plan and unfortunately martin i don't have that power and authority but yeah i mean looking

00:39at saturday's figures you know 1378 attempts and 1194 made it that's a 15 stop rate in france that's

00:46pretty by anyone's estimation we know because you've had patrick christie's over there you've

00:51had mark white over there they're launching from inland waterways around coming into the beaches

00:57now because they're worried about being stopped on the beaches and i'm just saying look there are

01:02loads of ways that we could stop that easily martin if we were allowed to we've got satellite

01:07tracking technology at borders now i'm here in estonia chairing a very conference on international

01:12border management i've got the americans here lots of countries here telling me about they've got

01:17barriers they've got surveillance floating barriers on the rio grande loads of stuff that could be done

01:22naturally by experts in this field but in order to do that you've got a political agreement and

01:28that's what my problem is i don't understand if we're really serious about doing this well then

01:32why don't we deploy these technologies and let's stop these boats before the people even get in them

01:36we could puncture the boats capture the pilots and finish it at a stroke but that requires the

01:41political will of the french and i'm really interested i know what is going on there and what's this latest

01:46missive that they're going to be changing their laws apparently to do something about it or i don't know

01:51but it's 480 million investment over three years as you know martin and i really don't know where

01:56that money's going because if i had to control and compare and control over it and and we could do

02:01some of the things we'd like to do off the french coastline then i think we'd have a really good go

02:06at stopping this tony smith let's be honest what the french are getting up to the gendarmes there they

02:11look like they're on a half a billion pound a year perpetual fag break they stand by and watch

02:16um they're not intervening in water that i keep saying is no deeper than the average bath you

02:22know they're literally standing by taking selfies and doing nothing but some of the ideas you put

02:26in the telegraph today are excellent high-tech surveillance we've got drones you say that can

02:30now tell what someone's having for their sandwiches on the deck of a boat but i tell you what there's

02:36another problem going to be there is gdpr satellite access data our friends in brussels would never allow

02:43us to scan french beaches would they and that's the problem without this joined up thinking it

02:48was was simply um kissing into the wind yeah well martin i've spent my whole life trying to stop

02:54human smuggling it's a terrible business that's why i'm still doing this even now you know i left

02:58the border fast ages ago but i'm still out here with a lot of like-minded people trying to say look

03:02we've got to stop human smuggling if not they're just to stop people drowning regardless of what your

03:06views are on immigration and we can do it i mean technology is keeping up we can get after this

03:11these mechanisms but if you have not got that political will if you haven't got the authorities

03:16from those who control that territory which is the french government and the and the european union

03:21who are prepared to deploy and allow us to deploy to stop these boats which we could do quite easily

03:27operationally then you're right of course we can't do it but to me i just need to understand this is a

03:32political problem martin it's not an operational problem it's not within the gift of the uk border

03:36force we can't go over there we're not allowed but there are things that could be done if the

03:40political will was there in my view and turn you also add to this list yeah this u.s star marine

03:46barriers this of course is in those canals that lead up to the coast there because these craft are

03:52oftentimes launched and not from the beaches themselves but downstream in these canals and

03:56you say that the u.s star blockades could easily work on them and that will stop any of those dinghies

04:02getting anywhere near the sea in the first place of course that takes will from the french at the

04:06moment that's a rare commodity and then pushing the back pushing back the boats to the french side

04:11again these are all common sense ideas but as you say without joint of political thinking is it all a

04:17pipe dream yeah i mean you know i was just struck by patrick's report you know he went he crossed over

04:23a field with a camera crew and saw a boat sitting in the canal there you know i mean like and actually

04:29yeah there is their satellite technology is fantastic these days you're right there's gdpr issues

04:34there's there's going to be lots of people find lots of legal and political reasons why we can't

04:37do this but the technology is there those people are in shallow waters there they have now got craft

04:42that could go right up i mean not even waist deep and and get those people safely off and back to shore

04:47before they set sail on those choppy waters and some of them are going to drown

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