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While most of us sat down to our Christmas dinner, our Coastguard were out in the freezing English Channel rescuing men, women and children from rubber dinghies.

Since November they have pulled hundreds from the Channel, as people smugglers take everything refugees have and push them out to sea.

Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, has been slow to respond, having only declared this a major incident on Friday. He has still to explain exactly how the Government plans to handle these mass criminal operations in British waters.

The Home Office’s flawed strategy has been to focus on deterring refugees, thinking that the issues in the Mediterranean would never reach our shores.

(Image: PA)

While the Tories wax lyrical about control of our borders and being tough on security, they cannot seem to get a grip on criminal smugglers operating on a few hundred miles of coastline, in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

The Government’s obsession with creating a hostile environment has made them forget that whether it was the Huguenots, Jews, Vietnamese, Ugandan Asians or the Kosovans, Britain has always had a proud history of giving sanctuary to those escaping war and persecution.

(Image: PA)

But under this Tory Government we won’t even meet our commitments to unaccompanied child refugees, some of whom found themselves in the Channel this Christmas.

We must immediately focus on better co-operation with the French authorities and other EU states.

(Image: Christopher Furlong)

If we all did our fair share and established safe and legal routes for refugees, it would go a long way to alleviate this crisis.

No one should feel so desperate that they would risk drowning themselves and even their children.

We simply cannot allow this to continue on our doorstep. We are Britain and we are better than this.