People arriving via small boats will be detained and returned to France “in short order” with a new safe and legal route established for refugees for the first time, Keir Starmer has announced.
The “one in, one out” deal – a pilot agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron – will for the first time give the UK the ability to return asylum seekers who cross the Channel to France who would not then be allowed to apply via the legal route.
Starmer said it was right that the government allowed refugees in desperate need to seek refuge in the UK – but only those who had not first attempted to come by boat and only after strict security checks.
Speaking in a joint press conference at the end of Macron’s state visit, Starmer said: “There is no silver bullet here, but with a united effort, new tactics and a new level of intent, we can finally turn the tables.
“For the very first time, migrants arriving via small boat will be detained and returned to France in short order.”
The pilot is expected to begin in the coming weeks and will include a safe and controlled route “only open to those who have not tried to enter the UK illegally”, the prime minister said. According to a report in Le Monde earlier this week, the pilot scheme would only lead to the return of 50 people a week – a fraction of the total amount who cross.
“This will show others trying to make the same journey that it will be in vain, and the jobs they have been promised in the UK will no longer exist because of the nationwide crackdown we’re delivering on illegal working which is on a completely unprecedented scale.”
Starmer suggested he anticipated a backlash from the rightwing press and Conservatives for allowing the new legal route.
“We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need,” he said. “But there is also something else, something more practical which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won’t play ball.
“That is why today’s agreement is so important, because we will solve this, like so many of our problems, by working together.”
The summit between the two leaders included a number of key deals, including an agreement to coordinate nuclear deterrents, called the Northwood declaration.
“From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations,” Starmer said.
More details soon …
