Channel Smuggling Discovers Belgium Exists

Spectator Australia · Gavin Mortimer · Friday 17 April 2026

Channel Smuggling Discovers Belgium Exists

Belgium has become the new departure point for Channel crossings after increased enforcement around Calais pushed smuggling operations up the coast. The Spectator argues Europe must get tougher on people-smuggling gangs.

'Play them at their own game' — mate, the game is a dinghy and a prayer, and Europe's been losing to blokes with outboard motors for a decade. Belgium's the new departure lounge because Calais got a fence, which moved the problem forty miles up the coast the way squeezing a balloon moves the air. Mortimer's discovered geography. Bismarck would weep.

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