Boris Johnson considers law change amid rising migrant crossings

Boris Johnson says the UK should work with France over channel crossings.

The UK needs to consider changes to asylum laws to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister said it was currently “very, very difficult” to legally return people who arrive in the UK from France using small boats.

More than 4,000 people have successfully crossed English Channel this way so far this year.

It comes as a group of Tory MPs has called for tougher action on crossings.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Johnson pledged to work with the French authorities to discourage people from making the “dangerous” journey across the channel.

But he added the UK also needed to look at “the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allow them to stay here”.

‘Range of options’

On Monday, the Ministry of Defence said it had sent an RAF Atlas transport aircraft to help Border Force spot small boats trying to cross the Channel.

The Home Office had asked defence chiefs for help to deal with migrants making the crossing.

Downing Street said Border Force was looking at a “range of options,” including new measures, to stop boats entering British waters.

EU Laws

The UK is currently following EU asylum law during its 11-month post-Brexit transition period following its departure from the bloc in January.

This includes the so-called Dublin regulation, which states that a person’s asylum claim can be transferred to the first member state they entered.

The PM’s spokesman said the UK wanted to replace the “inflexible and rigid” regulation with a new agreement on returns after December.

He added that the current Dublin rules, which put a time limit on transfers, could be “abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here”.

In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, 23 Tory MPs and two peers said the UK should refuse to sign up to a “similar agreement” to Dublin after December.

They also urged “stronger enforcement efforts” to address a “surge in illegal immigration”.

The group says ministers should do “whatever it takes” to address the rising number of people trying to enter the UK via the English Channel.

“It is strikingly clear that, rather than a ‘hostile environment’, invading migrants have been welcomed,” they wrote.

They added that some migrants had been offered “immediate access to regular payments whilst accommodated at taxpayer expense in expensive hotels.”

“All this is relayed to people smugglers and potential economic migrants in France, encouraging and emboldening those intent on facilitating further border crossings.”

BBC