Trafficking gangs are reportedly reducing costs to smuggle migrants into EU.
GB News brought in the news on the migrant crisis (Image: GB News)
GB News have issued a breaking news alert on the recent migrant crisis in Ceuta, Spain, and that could put Prime Minister Andy Burnham under pressure to strengthen the UK border. Around 60,000 migrants swam and trekked to the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta in the space of 24 hours on Thursday, which has beenb declased the biggest ever one-day surge of illegal migrants into the EU.
The situation left the Labour leader under pressure, he said on Saturday: “I have been in touch with the Spanish prime minister and (we are) providing what help we can.” But his government is facing growing scrutiny over its approach to migration.
David Haigh, who works as an International Human Rights lawyer, expressed his concerns as he told GB News: “We still haven’t got a proper plan in place of what to do with both the econimics migrants and the genuine asylum seekers.”
The majority of migrants have now returned to Morocco (Image: Getty)
While Burnham said to “offer support” to Spain, 22 out of 27 EU countries have signed a letter calling for joint action to strengthen external borders and tackle and prevent encouraging irregular migration.
Haigh continued: “What happened in Spain earlier on in Ceuta, that’s not an issue about weather, that’s an issue about court case in Spain that made it easier for people to cross and not be returned, that’s why it caused this problem in the first place. That’s political issues, but it also affects the whole of Europe. This is a European and worldwide problem and the solution is going to be a European and a worldwide one.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission ,has said none of the 60,000 migrants who arrived in Ceuta managed to go on to reach mainland Spain or the rest of the EU. She added that the “vast majority” of those who had arrived in the territory illegally in the past days or so had now returned to Morocco.
The GB News guest believed that the migrants will “ultimately find a way” to reach the UK. He said the Spain migrant crisis was mostly fuelled by misleading marketing campaign on TikTok and social media, and that people smugglers were trying to “cash in” on illegal labour. He explained: “They essentially want the ticket fee and there’s a lot of criminal underworld activity wants people to be brought into countries like the UK, the illegal labour, that’s what they’re after.”
Andy Burnham was under pressure to set out a plan on tackling migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
HuffPost journalist Kevin Schofield urged the Prime Minister to act, as his priorities on the crisis remain “unclear”. He said: “The Prime Minister needs to set out his stall pretty quickly so we know he’s not going to roll back on what the previous government had been trying to do.
“It is a perception among voters that he’s maybe a little bit soft when it comes to immigration. I think it’s one of the many areas where we still have to get a bit more meat on the bones on where Andy Burnham’s position lies.”
The PM suggested that there could be an outline of his own migrant policy as he announced: “I will make a visit shortly to Border Force to see the situation myself.”