Three Border Force patrol vessels are tied up in Lowestoft for repairs

Border Farce! Three of Britain’s boats tasked with patrolling the Channel are ‘undergoing repairs more than 130 miles away in the Port of Lowestoft’

• Three out of Britain’s five Border Force cutters are currently tied up in Suffolk
• The vessels are tasked with monitoring the English Channel for migrants  

Three out of five of Britain’s Broder Force cutters are currently undergoing maintenance instead of patrolling the English Channel protecting the nation’s coastline. 

HMC Protector, Valiant and Seeker are all tied up in Lowestoft, Suffolk where they are all undergoing repairs, or recertification. 

HMC Protector was bought second hand from the Finnish Navy in 2013. According to marine tracking data it has been moored up for the past six months awaiting safety certification works which were due to last 25 days. 

HMC Valiant is undergoing a £2million Ship Life Extension Programme which was expected to take three months. 

HMP Protector, pictured, has been moored in Lowestoft, Suffolk for at least six months. It has been tied up for so long that it has been mapped on Google Street View

HMC Valiant, pictured, is undergoing a £2m Ship Life Extension Programme 

HMC Seeker is also undergoing work expected to cost up to £123,000 and due to last up to 25 days.

According to The Sun, a Home Office official said: ‘Our utmost priority is protecting the safety of the public, the maintenance of Border Force’s vessels is managed throughout the year to ensure that this does not impact on our operational effectiveness.’ 

They did not provide any comment on why the three cutters were out of service at the same time. 

HMC Hurricane was pictured this week landing migrants in Dover after rescuing them from the English Channel. 

It is estimated that more than 150 migrants have successfully crossed the Channel in 2023.  

HMC Hurricane, pictured, was busy saving migrants from the English Channel earlier this week

HMC Seeker is also undergoing upgrade works in Lowestoft, Suffolk 

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