British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce new measures to tackle illegal immigration on Thursday, including an agreement with Rwanda, after a record year for migrant crossings in the English Channel, Downing Street announced on Wednesday.
Boris Johnson must announce measures
"to break smuggler structures, step up operations in the Channel, bring more criminals to justice and end the barbaric trade in human misery",
according to Downing Street.
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The announcement of the new measures comes as the Prime Minister is struggling after being notified on Tuesday that he was to be fined for parties held in Downing Street during the lockdowns, a scandal that has lastingly tarnished his long-stainless popularity .
Although the Prime Minister has made the fight against illegal immigration his priority after Brexit, crossings have continued to increase in the Channel.
More than 28,500 people made these perilous crossings in 2021, compared to 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
“Some 600 (migrants) crossed the Channel yesterday
,” the Prime Minister is to say on Thursday.
"I understand that these people are looking for a better life (...) and the hopes of a new beginning."
“But those hopes, those dreams, have been exploited.
These smugglers abuse vulnerable people and turn the Channel into an underwater graveyard”.
The British Home Office must also announce a
“migration and economic development” agreement
with Rwanda, signed by Minister Priti Patel.
For months, Boris Johnson and his government have been seeking to conclude agreements with third countries where to send migrants while waiting to process their file.
Rwanda and Ghana had been mentioned, but Ghana strongly denied in January that it was in discussions with the United Kingdom on the subject.
The British Parliament is also about to adopt a law which could authorize the creation of centers abroad to deport migrants while their applications are being processed or even authorize the coast guard to push migrants out of British waters. migrant boats.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this law, if adopted, would contradict the Geneva Convention for Refugees, which the United Kingdom has signed.
