Should there be a full public inquiry into small boat crossings?
Small boat crossings across the English Channel continue, with 20,935 arrivals so far in 2026, 41% below the same point in 2025. A petition calling for a full public inquiry into illegal migration has gathered over 79,000 signatures, but the government has rejected it, stating existing parliamentary oversight and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration provide sufficient scrutiny. There has already been a specific public inquiry into the 2021 Channel disaster that killed at least 30 people.
42 Opinions
I have said Yes but really what is needed is action. No party has ever said they will allow it to continue but here we are. The sights in Gosport were poor. Several ambulances turning up when waiting times for them are already high. A section 35 order placed on the whole town. All very dystopian.
I just don’t see what good spending time and money on a public inquiry will do. Action is required, not words.
There's no inquiry needed. It's Brexit. So obvious. Asylum seekers turned down in the EU now know they have another chance in the UK because we're not in the EU. Oh and it would be good if "the civilised west" could stop arming the middle East and Africa. Also if we could break our oil dependency then we could stop the unnecessary wars in the middle East.
Why waste time and money? We all can see the number of people caught trying to get into this country illegally. What we need is a change in attitude: treat them as the criminals they are. Incarceration then prompt deportation. No person arriving here illegally should be given permission to stay. There are safe and legal routes into this country: use these instead of breaking the law.
No need to waste money on an enquiry, just send them back.
No it will cost millions of pounds when we know why.
A public inquiry won't tell us anything we don't already know. The causes of the increase in small boat crossings are not difficult to determine. The real issue is the government's response to that. And an inquiry won't answer that.
Its a waste of money we already know that this has been planned and executed exactly how the government wants it to be but would be nice to be able to show people that without being called a conspiracy theorist
Public enquiries are generally just money pits, it's not exactly a problem we don't understand
A public enquiry is one thing what's really needed is a state of emergency and action. What's happening is unsustainable on multiple levels.