Small Boat Crossings: Pat Mcfadden Answers How Labour Would Tackle the Migrant Crisis

Latest figures indicate that the number of people arriving in the UK on

small

boat

s exceeded 5,000 at the end of March for the first time and that the January to March period has been the busiest first quarter on record for Crossings, what you know , not a good statistic, is it for the government? Mercy, I wish PL could soon get the number of

boat

s, well, not at all, and I think actually we are probably set for another record year in terms of

small

boats. Crossings and I think that's actually why the government needs to do something about it and, in fact, I know that the Rwanda plan has been incredibly controversial, but I'm convinced that it will be a deterrent personally, so do you think that that is the answer?

Can I interrupt? There I interview you after interview that has been done with people who are gathered on the other side of the canal waiting to get on a boat and come, they have been told: are you deterred by the possibility of having to go to Rwanda? once you get to Britain and everyone, without exception, has said no, it's because it hasn't happened yet, it's because they see it as a fantasy, a fantasy, so I'm not saying you know that I'm hugely worried about Rand. I think the right thing to do is to have a deterrent.

I think that is the way to break the business model to, in a way, cut off the head of the snake of human trafficking and, then, what are the other alternatives that are on the table? I don't see any other alternative proposed by any other party. Labor says things like we will cooperate more with the EU. I mean, what does that mean? This was not discussed in a couple of minutes by Labor, but by the government. It has other cards on the table, for example, it paid 500 million to France, which reduced the number of people who come across similar return plans with Albania, because approximately 30,000 people arrived last year the year before.

It was 45,000, so it went down, but it seems to be increasing now that people know that Rwanda is just a gimmick because you're talking about 300 people, if the government implements their plan, you're talking about 300 people. Well, what is a deterrent like? If you have 5,000, you can do the sums, which means 4,700 won't come if you do 3,300. Last year, when 30,000 arrived, it meant you had a one in 100 chance of going to Rwanda and then. Under the terms of the agreement, it has not been allowed because the government's own figures show that this year it

would

be 300, 300 and you got 30,000.

Comm, he's one in 100 and ultimately, but ultimately, under the terms of his agreement, he doesn't know. this under the terms of the agreement someone deported with a one way ticket from Britain to Rwanda commits a crime in Rwanda they send them back to Britain now come on it's not an orbra act you don't want to be in Rwanda what do you do? you commit a crime and you go back to Britain um just getting away from the whole Randa aspect um I just look at the figures I mean you and I have done interviews over the last five six seven years about this story and every time we talk to a minister of the conservative government in this regard.

They tell us they are aware of the problem. They are overcoming the problem at any time. The numbers are going to drop by 5,000 this year. So far, it's worse than ever. That's exactly why I say there needs to be a deterrent and I don't know what your solution is. Rwanda says. Say solution to endure, but it simply says Rwanda. It's an easy word that covers the fact that it exists. It's not an easy fix and yes, and the workers have their five point plan, some of which are very similar to what the government is doing in terms of getting refunds.

The AG agency processes claims quickly, something the government has not done, and that is why there is such a huge pushback, disrupt the business model, get a special unit for law enforcement to deal with human trafficking, let's ask what

would

the job do now, you asked that question, well we can ask one of the guys involved, this is Pat Mcfaden, he's from the National Labor Party. campaign coordination team he is the current coordinator good morning mr mcf thank you for joining us okay let's say that tomorrow you break into the elections how will you address the immigration problem?

How would you reduce that number from 5,000 to 3 2 1? and then zero, how would you do it right? I never like to assume the outcome of any election, but if they came to pass the way you just said, we look at the money being spent on this, it's 500 million for uh. Even if it worked as intended to send 300 people to Rwanda - that's almost £2m per person - we think £500m could be better spent with a tough new cross-border surveillance Unit H to crack down on the ships. Coming you need international cooperation we have to crack down on criminal gangs, we would also process applications faster so that people are not left in limbo and it can be decided more quickly who is legitimate and who is not, because not doing so increases the cost and we have this huge cost hotelier where the country is spending a couple of billion pounds a year just putting people up in hotels where we haven't even decided whether they have a right to be here or not, can we just go into the details of what you said At the beginning of that answer you talk about this cross-border unity that you would reinforce, can you tell me in detail how it would work?

Are we talking about police on boats? Are we talking about sending British police across the channel to France? To help the French, are we talking about paying the French more money to put in more work to stop these gangs? How would it really work? Because we're spending a lot of money on this and it's not working. Well, we spent a lot of money in Rwanda, huh, but we think the money could be better used. You said you may want to know the details of how it works. I want to know. I want you to give me an idea of ​​how this cross unit you talked about would actually work.

Would it work well? You have to employ the officers to work with those who are already doing some of this work. Part of this is about cooperation with other countries, as I say, because it is an international problem, this and countries throughout Europe are facing this flow. of people uh and it's about making sure that we have the right powers and if we need to use the kind of laws that we use to stamp out terrorism then we should use them too. The point is how do you get the best value for money and what a very, very difficult problem.

I'm not going to pretend that cracking down on this problem is easy, but spending half a billion to send a couple of people away doesn't seem like the best value we get. We have already spent hundreds of millions of pounds, don't we give that money to France to do it? And from what you're saying, then that doesn't work, why then would we spend more money trying to do that when that approach doesn't work? It wouldn't work if we didn't cooperate with France. I suspect the numbers would be even higher and that is the difficult truth of a difficult problem, so if we were to assume that nothing we are doing in terms of international cooperation is working, I think that would be a dangerous point of view because, although These numbers are high, if we didn't have any international cooperation they would probably be even higher because there would be nothing to stop people.

It's a very fair point. Do you think that's a very fair point? With respect to something like this, you know how long these measures will take place because you know it's going to take time, isn't it to establish these agreements? It's going to take time to crush the organized crime gangs, meanwhile the numbers We are still processing claims here in the UK and we know from the figures that a significant number of people actually having their claims processed They are allowed to stay here because they have valid claims. The point is that we want to try to discourage people from coming as soon as possible, right?

We have to separate those who have a valid claim and those who do not. If people don't have a valid claim they shouldn't be here, but some people do have a valid claim, one of the other problems with the current system is that there are tens of thousands of people who are simply put up in hotels or other accommodations, it is not allows them to work, they can't make any contribution and they are being built at taxpayers' expense it costs six or S million pounds a day, we spend a couple of billion pounds a year on this and it's a couple of thousand millions of pounds being spent just keeping people in limbo, which is not a good deal for the taxpayer and it doesn't solve the problem either, so there is the question of the ships arriving and then there is the question of what It happens when people actually come to the UK.

There is another, much more important question, isn't there? Let's back away from this. and and and and let's look at it, why do workers think so many im

migrant

s want to come here? Why are they not content to settle in France, France or Germany or any of the countries they pass through on their way to the Channel Coast? risking their lives getting on these ships full of God to come here in such numbers. What is it about Britain that attracts them? What is Labor's opinion on this? Well, I think the inference behind your question is that we have many more asylum applications than the countries you mentioned.

That is not the case, there are tens of thousands of asylum applications in France, Germany, Italy, these other countries, that is not the case, everyone who travels through Europe wants to come to Britain, very often, other countries have more asylum applications. per year we have, so there is a myth about this that all the traffic comes to the UK, usually when people want to come to the UK it is because they have some connection to the UK in the first place, It could be a family member or part of your community who is already here, but it is not the case that people are not applying for asylum in other European countries.

I speak with other European politicians. This is a problem, a problem and a difficulty throughout Europe, it is not a specific problem. The Brits ask one more question and you literally have 20 seconds to answer it, if you don't mind, okay, Labor wins the next election, they implement their policies, how long before the problem will never completely go away, but how long do you think ? before the problem can be properly controlled, I think we take this seriously, but it is a difficult problem and that is why good policing and international work will be created to reduce those numbers, okay Pat, and thanks for join us this morning.