This is not a criticism made in hindsight either. But the absence of any removal arrangement has singled Britain out and is no doubt a significant, and probably the most significant, contributing factor behind the rising numbers. No doubt the increased security around Calais, the closing of the jungle camp and the absence of any safe, legal routes for asylum to Britain have fuelled this rise, making people take greater risks to get across. Only after Brexit has the number of crossings exploded. It is noticeable that, until Brexit, small boat crossings had barely registered as a major issue for decades, with relatively few crossings made. This meant that someone crossing the Channel would be much harder to return and would be able to remain in the UK for longer. We left this arrangement with the EU without anything in its place in our haste to agree a deal and get out. Everyone wanting to seek asylum in the UK would know or soon find out that after crossing the Channel they could – and often were – promptly returned.Įverything changed after Brexit. The pre-Brexit arrangement probably had a deterrent effect. This allowed the UK to return anyone claiming asylum in the UK to the first country within the larger EU they had been to first. In fact, we were part of an arrangement with France and the European Union – called the Dublin Regulation – until Brexit.
This might sound complicated, but it isn’t. The priority is to organise their removal – not to Rwanda – but to France or elsewhere in the European Union. We might think it makes much better sense to return English Channel small boats to France or wherever in Europe they set off from than to pack them up and ship them 4,000 miles away. Boris Johnson’s Rwanda migrant announcement is a lazy diversion tactic at best.Priti Patel defends Rwanda refugee agreement as ‘not like a trade deal’.Keir Starmer says asylum seekers should apply to UK from ‘misery’ of French camps, to ease crisis.
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