Former border inspector John Vine has warned of the “serious threat” posed after a new small boat migrant route into Britain was discovered.
The ex-Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration spoke to GB News after police revealed “violent” ex-soldiers from Iraq or Afghanistan were facilitating crossings from the new location.
Armed men are aiding small boat smuggling gangs, which have moved to launch from Belgium after French authorities took a stricter approach to monitoring the would-be migrants.
“It's a very serious threat. It's a serious threat on a number of levels,” Mr Vine stressed.
He expected the UK Border Force to be “totally alarmed” by the development.
He said: “Very often, in any migration flow, people come as foreign fighters. There are people who have trained and have been part of militias and irregular armies in places such as Iraq and Syria.”
To that end, Mr Vine insisted that the Belgian police must take action, but cautioned that it would be a dangerous operation.
He told GB News: “First of all, the Belgian police chief will want to ensure that his officers, when they actually engage in trying to stop the boats, are not going to be putting themselves in danger.
“If some of them are armed, he should be immediately calling for armed support for his officers to actually do their job in Belgium.”
He continued: “If they know these people are military people and being paid, presumably by organised crime, to do this job, to provide protection to the criminal gangs who are bringing people illegally on boats, they should be seeking support from their own army to support their efforts.”
“They should seek the support they need from their own government to tackle this.
“They need to tackle it now before it becomes something that becomes a routine part of the smuggling gangs' operation,” Mr Vine stressed.
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Beyond just preventing further small boat crossings into the UK, the former border inspector warned of the risk posed to local Belgians.
“The part of Belgium where they're launching from is quite well-to-do", he said.
“There are lots of Belgian people who live here, it's very popular. These individuals will be, you know, either in and around all those towns.
“The Belgian police are responsible for the safety and security of their own citizens living in this area,” Mr Vine said.
Local Belgian police chief Nicholas Paelinck revealed the presence of armed men working with small-boat smugglers this week.
he said: "Normally, we try to puncture the boat beforehand to prevent the crossing to the United Kingdom.
"But that is not possible here, because you see ex-military personnel from Iraq circling the boat to ensure the police cannot get to it.
"Officers were threatened by the soldiers, and a mirror was even smashed with an iron bar. We conducted a risk analysis, and it is too dangerous to operate on that beach anymore. We will not do that again."
Police have also found "weapons of war and ammunition" in migrant tent camps, and have warned it is "only a matter of time" before officers are confronted.
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