Despite a recent rise in migrant crossings, Rishi Sunak insists his approach to stop the boats is producing “much better” outcomes.
The Prime Minister denied that the Government’s harsh attitude was already discouraging hundreds of asylum seekers from risking their lives crossing the Channel in unsafe dinghies.
He stated that the number of crossings so far this year has been more than anyone expected after dramatic increases in recent years, implying that the scale of the situation would have been substantially worse if the government had not intervened.
Mr Sunak, on the other hand, confessed that he “fully expected” crossings to increase over the summer months.
Internal Home Office predictions warned as many as 80,000 migrants could cross the Channel in small boats this year – up from 45,755 in 2022.
Appearing to manage expectations on what constitutes success in the Government’s battle against people smugglers, Mr Sunak told reporters: “It is worth bearing in mind that the numbers have escalated every year.
“I remember when I came in that people were saying what was going to happen. If you look at the trajectory of the increase year over year over year, the numbers have been going up very sharply.
“The fact that they were down for five months of the year, the fact that they are still down, even if it is less, compared to what people were expecting, is really a much better result than anyone was expecting.”
The Prime Minister said the Court of Appeal ruling on Rwanda, which ruled against the Government, had supported the principle of sending migrants to safe third countries for their asylum claims to be processed there.