Migrants: Is the Cost Really the Actual Cost? Is Something Being Hidden?

Yesterday/Last Night's migrant fiasco highlights something I suspect most people hadn't considered. 

The total cost of the operation. Not just the cost of housing the Migrants and feeding them or supplying them with benefits, but the costs incurred before they even set foot on UK soil.

Yes, there are the costs incurred in running the Border Force Boats out into the channel on a daily basis; the staff costs, fuel and the maintenance of these boats is not a cheap exercise. Believe me, I know!

But there are other costs: are the RNLI being reimbursed for their part in the water taxi operation? 

But then what is the cost of landing the migrants? Staffing, security, transport etc.

Well, lats night, we got an insight into the costs involved.

Local Councillor George Magwick posted on X a video of a huge convoy of several emergency vehicles including a large number of Police Vehicles and a few Ambulances escorting three coaches into Gosport for the original intended destination of last night's recovery.

Eventually, due to the large number of crowds turning up at the again, ill-conceived landing on the end of the Gosport peninsula, the boats carrying the migrants headed for the port of Dover, where the landing could be secured and controlled.

Next, as an example of how many of these crossings happen when the weather is right, today there were three obvious simultaneous crossings happening. Again, border force and the RNLI made their way out to the French boats at the halfway point.

However, today I checked an extra resource, Flight Radar 24.

Circling above at least two of the crossings was an aircraft. Not the previous small border force Britten-Norman Islander. Nope, this was a not insubstantial De Haviland Canada Dash-8 300 ISR aircraft.

Now, the operating costs of this regional airliner size aircraft must be huge.

Note that the aircraft information is not complete, I assume in an effort to disguise it's identity. 

The aircraft is on planespotters.net here: www.planespotters.net/photo/1660535/c-gfmx-uk-home-office-bombardier-dhc-8-315-isr

This is not a cheap to run asset. Imagine this aircraft is out circling above every boat passage reported by The French boats shadowing the dinghies. That's a huge additional cost.

This is a military-scale action happening almost on a daily basis. How is this sustainable? 

I'm sure the cost is hidden by spreading it out amongst various government departments, but when you see the figures for housing the migrants, just remember the huge operation that brings them here and processes them and transports them before they claim a penny from the government.

UPDATE:

It's now 20:11 and there is another boat transfer in progress between the Dungeness RNLI lifeboat and a French warship. The This is being circled by a smaller aircraft at the moment. Looks like the Dover lifeboat and fast vessel BSC Enterprise are involved too.