Keir Starmer ‘could have ended Channel migrant crisis by now’ with one simple move_ Hieuuk
EXCLUSIVE: Only 506 small boat migrants were deported between July and September, down 20% on the previous quarter, Mr Philp said.
Migrants tumble off a boat in the Channel (Image: Getty)
The Channel migrant crisis would have “ended by now” had Labour kept the Rwanda deportation scheme, Chris Philp has declared.
The Shadow Home Secretary told the Daily Express Labour is also “failing to return people who cross”.
Only 506 small boat migrants were deported between July and September, down 20% on the previous quarter, Mr Philp said.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Labour is shamefully failing to secure our borders. Over 20,000 people have crossed by small boat since the election, 18% more than the same period last year.
“Labour cancelled the Rwanda deterrent before it even started. And they are now failing to return people who cross.
Smugglers have begun piloting the boats to the coastline to pick up waiting migrants (Image: Getty)
“If Rwanda had started, the crossings would have been ended by now – as Australia found when they introduced a deterrent.
“Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper should hang their heads in shame.”
Almost 34,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, including more than 20,000 since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister in July.
Labour ditched the Rwanda deportation scheme within hours of coming into office.
And Ms Cooper is prioritising hunting the smuggling gangs – particularly the Kurdish organised crime networks that control many of the crossing routes – to end the crisis.
The Home Secretary also believes greater cooperation with European nations will allow police to disrupt the smugglers’ supply chains and seize more boats and engines.
But Mr Philp told MPs on Wednesday: “Since the election, more than 20,000 people dangerously and illegally crossed the English Channel.
“That is 18% up on the same 150 days the previous year.
“I do not call an 18% year-on-year increase ‘delivering results’. That is a failure.
“Why are these figures up year on year? Well, the National Crime Agency told us we need a deterrent, law enforcement alone won’t be enough.
“And yet the Government cancelled the Rwanda deterrent before it even started. The first flight was due to take off on the 24th of July, and they cancelled it before it even took off.”
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau, after meeting Ms Cooper and their colleagues from Belgium, Germany and Netherlands, confirmed Paris would bolster patrols along their coast this winter.
But he did not specify how many additional officers would be deployed.
Home Secretary Ms Cooper told MPs: “I strongly welcome the new announcements from the French Interior Minister on increasing the police presence and enforcement along the French coast through the winter, alongside the appointment of a new coastal préfet.
“The increased violence we have seen on the beaches towards French police is a total disgrace.
“The Calais group also agreed a new plan to strengthen action across our five countries, including a range of actions backed by an end-to-end approach to tackling migrant smuggling networks, from the French coast through to source and transit countries, including Vietnam and central Africa.
“This includes stronger enforcement capability through Europol, targeting the illicit finance model of migrant smuggling networks, taking down social media advertising, and co-ordinated preventive communications to deter people from paying gangs to arrange dangerous, irregular journeys.”
Berlin has confirmed it will “clarify” its laws to allow police to snare criminals using safehouses in the country, making it a criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling” of asylum seekers.
The Home Office believes a new deal between the UK and Germany will “significantly increase the number of prosecutions made in relation to migrant smuggling”.
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Both countries will also “commit to exchanging expertise with a special focus on removing migrant smuggling content from social media platforms; strengthen their focus in Europol on tackling the end-to-end routes of criminal smuggling networks; and further commit to working with European and regional partners to tackle irregular migration upstream.”
Smugglers have exploited loopholes in German law to bring engines and boats to the French coast, bragging they can reach the French coast using the motorway network within several hours.
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Thousands of migrants also pass through the country, with organised crime gangs using safehouses near Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt, Essen, Dusseldorf, Bochum and Dortmund.
Ms Cooper told Parliament: “We know that gangs are routing many supply chains through Germany, including using warehouses to store boats and engines that are destined for the Channel.”
She added: “Smuggler and trafficking gangs have been allowed to get away with their vile trade in people for far too long.
“Britain needs strong borders and a properly controlled and managed asylum and immigration system, but, for the past five years, we have had the opposite.
“That is why we are prepared to do the hard graft to get the system back under control and tackle the gangs long before they reach our shores.”
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