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How is the Government going to stop the boats?

There is a Bill in the works to discourage illegal migrant routes, but the problem is getting worse before our very eyes.

Almost 500 migrants reached the UK by small boat on Wednesday, bringing the total for this year to over 10,000. To the Left, which wants open borders, any attempt to fix the problem is inhumane – but if you want a fair migration policy, an “anyone who makes it can stay” approach is madness. These crossings are dangerous; they are facilitated by criminal gangs; and once here, migrants are likely to slip into the underground economy, to become victims of exploitation. Moreover, the UK, like any other country, has a right to decide who gets in and who does not, especially in the current situation. The pandemic has proved the necessity of a well managed immigration system. Given that Britain has the natural advantage of being an island, it is surreal that we are unable to control our borders.

What is the Government’s plan? Priti Patel has been on a fact-finding mission to Greece, which became a magnet during the European migration crisis. Athens has established walled camps and is accused of pushing boats back, something it denies – but whatever it is doing, at the beginning of the year there were more returns than arrivals, and Greece is not alone in operating a policy of deterrence. Denmark has cut benefits and tried to offshore the asylum applications process. According to Chatham House, only 1,547 people applied for Danish asylum in 2020, down 57 per cent since 2019, and the centre-Left prime minister says she would like to reduce the number to zero.

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Ms Patel has unveiled a Nationality and Borders Bill that would shift applications to a third country as well as penalise asylum seekers who enter the UK via illegal routes and, in theory, make it easier to expel them; the goal is to encourage legal migration and disincentive criminality. The immediate practical problem, however, is that the perfectly safe country the Channel migrants have travelled through, France, is reluctant to take them back – and though there is increased cooperation with the UK, which France is happy to accept our money to facilitate, ultimately the French can live with a situation in which migrants wind up on the English coast rather than being processed through their own system. As the British public loses faith, more migrants will be tempted to try their luck and things will, no doubt, deteriorate further – so what is the Government’s plan to deal with a crisis that is happening right now?

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