A British far-right activist has pleaded guilty for slashing a migrant dinghy in the English Channel while a rescuer was aboard
LONDON -- A British far-right activist who has led protests against migrants crossing the English Channel pleaded guilty Thursday to slashing a dinghy while a rescuer was still aboard.
Daniel Thomas, 37, pleaded guilty in Portsmouth Crown Court to criminal damage.
Social media video of the Sept. 22 incident showed Thomas taking a knife to an inflatable boat, which had no migrants aboard but was occupied by a French rescue services member.
“This is what needs to happen to everyone in these boats," Thomas said. "This is England. Get off the boat, you have time to get off the boat. This is not France. Take them back.”
Successive U.K. governments have struggled to stop people — more than 41,000 last year — making the dangerous journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The issue has been depicted as a crisis by politicians including Nigel Farage of the hard-right party Reform UK, and has been used as a rallying point by anti-immigration activists.
