The cross-Channel migrant crisis would perhaps be solved in a single stroke if only French patrols would tow the boats back to their mainland, or allowed their British counterparts to do the same: after all, the Australians have eliminated the problem by adopting the same approach. But how can we, on this side of the Channel, prompt the French authorities to undertake this sensible and obvious course of action, one that would seem to be in everyone’s interest?

One way of doing so would be to relocate newly-arrived Channel migrants not just to Rwanda but to some of France’s former colonies....