Since then, the number of people sent back to Europe after travelling across the English Channel to the UK in small boats has dropped sharply. Brexit, An immigration minister has acknowledged to members of parliament.
The Special Committee on the Interior was informed that so far this year, only five people have returned from Northern Europe on a dangerous journey. The minister said that in the previous year, when the United Kingdom became part of the EU’s repatriation agreement, 289 such arrivals were deported.
The Minister of the Interior and Justice, Tom Pursglove, told the House of Commons Committee on the Interior on Wednesday that “there are difficulties in ensuring the return”.
Committee chair Yvette Cooper asked “how many asylum-seekers or those who arrived” that they have been repatriated to any EU country since January.
Pursglove replied: “Regarding the return related to the arrival of the boat… this year’s answer is five.” Later he added: “There is no return agreement with the EU.”
Before Brexit, the UK was part of the EU return agreement called Dublin Agreement The committee heard that hundreds of people were allowed to return in previous years.
When Cooper stated that the returns had “have deteriorated significantly” since the loss of the agreement, Pursglove said that the pandemic was also a factor. He said: “You will realize that there are some difficulties in securing returns, especially due to Covid.”
He insisted, “Still hope to reach a successful return arrangement with our European friends and neighbors. And possibly cooperate with the European Union.”
This year, more than 23,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats across the English Channel. This is almost three times the 2020 total of approximately 8,500.
Pursglove said there were 31,115 asylum applications in the year to June, a 4% decrease from the previous year.
He said that boats are becoming the preferred means of transportation for “evil criminal gangs”-he repeated at least five times.
“Smugglers are becoming more and more daring. We are seeing more dangerous behavior. We are seeing the deployment of larger ships. We are seeing wider intersections coming from a wider coastline,” he said.
Pursglove said that the previous ship was launched from about 30 miles of the French coastline, but now it is launched from a 120-mile-long place, which he called “disturbing.”
Ask why repeat The promise of Priti Patel, the Secretary of the Interior, Pursglove said there was “absolute progress” in preventing boats from passing through.
“Obviously, compared to 2018, our number of secret arrivals this summer has increased by 5 times, which is totally unacceptable. We must do better in this regard. Before we can make better progress on this issue , I will not rest,” he said.
The committee member and Conservative MP Tim Lawton said that politicians had previously made “similar promises” but “the situation has not improved.”
Pursglove reiterated the plan to “make the route infeasible” and stated that “there is no single solution to this problem.”
