Why We Need Rwanda

Shocking new statistics on Britain's illegal migration crisis

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This week saw Rishi Sunak’s ‘Rwanda plan’ finally pass parliament. As I’ve written before, while you don’t often hear it inside the M25, more British people support the plan to deport asylum-seekers and illegal migrants to Rwanda than oppose it.

Furthermore, I’ve not yet met a single security expert or analyst in the National Crime Agency who thinks Britain can ever hope to resolve the growing crisis on the southern border without some kind of active third country deterrent.

Will the Rwanda plan work in practice? I’m not sure. Will illegal migrants and their growing army of lawyers be able to find legal loopholes and ways around it? Possibly. But is the plan a useful first step toward establishing this deterrent, to making it crystal clear Britain is serious about tackling a crisis that’s costing lives and making a mockery of its claim to be a self-governing nation with control over our its laws and borders? Absolutely.

That’s why I supported it and advised MPs about it. I don’t think it’s perfect but nor do I think the status-quo —or, for that matter, the Labour Party’s plan—are viable alternatives. As I pointed out on the Westminster Hour this week, while debating a Labour MP, I’ve not yet met anybody who knows something about the issue who thinks Labour’s vague and abstract talk about ‘smashing the gangs’ will work when, in reality, all you need is a dinghy and a torch. It’s just Whac-A-Mole.

The blunt reality is that too many people are still risking their lives in the Channel, too many heartless criminals are exploiting migrants and their families, too many people are continuing to flood into Britain illegally, and too many British people, who want tough and decisive action on this issue, are being ignored and misled.

The only way forward is to establish effective deterrents which discourage migrants from heading for the borders and the boats in the first place, revise our legal architecture so we can more effectively ignore international courts and conventions that prevent us from controlling our own borders, reform government departments like the Home Office where civil servants have clearly put politics ahead of doing their actual jobs, and simultaneously increase investment in patrolling our borders and the Channel to stop any boats that do make it through.

And in case you’ve forgotten why all this is necessary, I’ve just got hold of some striking new data on the sheer scale of this crisis on the border, as well as some fascinating recent polling on what the British people really think about this issue.

Last year, I threw light on the crisis by looking in detail at some of the staggering numbers that are involved. Now, I can bring this story up to date by showing you what’s really going on with the small boats.

And to be blunt it’s pretty shocking.