Government says UK Border Force and Royal Navy will work jointly to patrol territorial waters as fears grow of people smugglers using maritime routes

The government plans to increase collaboration between the UK Border Force and the Royal Navy in order to strengthen defences against migrants crossing illegally by sea into the UK, the Home Office has confirmed.

The Border Force has just three vessels operating at any one time in the seas off Britain, but the government intends to enhance joint working between law enforcement agencies and the navy to increase patrolling in territorial waters as part of a long-held plan.

Last weekend 20 people, mostly Albanians, were rescued in the Channel off Kent after their inflatable boats ran into trouble, sparking fears people smugglers may be turning to tactics more often seen in the eastern Mediterranean to get migrants into the UK. Last month, 17 Albanian migrants were picked up in Chichester marina in West Sussex, having crossed the Channel in a catamaran.

However, a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman strongly denied a report in the Sunday Times that it had already been asked to help defend the Channel and that navy planners are considering supplying offshore raiding craft manned by Royal Marines and a River class patrol ship.

“There is currently no request for military support in the English Channel,” she said.

The Home Office also declined to comment on what it called “speculation about specific measures”, but it highlighted last year’s strategic defence and spending review that included a plan to boost collaborative efforts between law enforcement and the military.

It said that the November review outlined its intention to enhance joint working between law enforcement agencies and the Royal Navy to increase patrolling in our territorial waters.

Any decision to use military craft to counteract illegal migration by boat would almost certainly have to be taken at ministerial level and would mark a significant change in the UK’s approach to patrolling maritime migrant movements. That is currently handled exclusively by the civilian Border Force using a combination of cutter ships, radar, onshore assets and aerial surveillance to detect and stop small craft attempting clandestine entry. Its boats do not patrol routinely, but are deployed on intelligence-led operations. In April, the home secretary, Theresa May, announced a cut in the Border Force’s budget.

Despite widespread press coverage of confirmed and suspected migrant boat landings on the south coast, it remains unclear exactly how extensive the phenomenon is and how much help is needed.

One of the Border Force’s cutter ships is currently operating in the Aegean sea between Greece and Turkey and the agency is waiting for the arrival of a fleet of new 20-metre patrol vessels to strengthen operations in the seas off the UK against people smugglers, gun runners and drug gangs. The first of the vessels, which are designed to be more nimble than the cutters, is due to come into operation this summer, with the rest in use by the end of 2017.