In a major crackdown on illegal channel crossings, Rishi Sunak has pledged to “remove and swiftly detain” all migrants who enter the UK illegally.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Sunak said the tough approach is “about fairness for those that seek to come here legally” and “fairness for those who live here”.
He vowed to “break the cycle of criminal gangs which are causing untold misery, leading to deaths in the channel”.
“We will introduce legislation that makes it clear that if you come here illegally, we will be able to detain you and quickly remove you to a safe third country,” Mr Sunak added.
According to him, this is a “reasonable and common sense approach that the majority of the British public supports.”
Mr Sunak announced a swathe of new policies to tackle migration in a statement to MPs at the start of December.
Mr Sunak presented a five-point plan to MPs in December to deal with illegal migration and help speed up the assessment of claims from “safe” countries.
It included “significantly” raising the threshold someone has to meet before being considered trafficked as a slave and processing claims from Albanian nationals in “weeks instead of months”.
He said that illegal migration is “unfair on the British people who play by the rules”.