The Home Office has approached the Australian border force chief that has been credited with helping end its crisis over migrant sea crossings.
Chris Philp, the immigration minister understood to have contacted Roman Quaedvlieg, former head of Australian border force in order to consult him over the nations Operation Sovereign Borders which saw Australian patrol forces turning back migrants who attempted to enter Australia illegally.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Quaedvlieg said Britain needed to introduce similar measures if it wanted to “significantly reduce” the number of migrants crossing the Channel to Britain.
As of today, more than 1,600 have already reached British soil this year, with just six per cent being returned to France.
The Home Secretary Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is considering law and treaty changes to make it easier to return migrants at sea and on land to France, as previously revealed by The Telegraph.
Mr Quaedvlieg said the United Kingdom could adopt three elements of the Australian operation starting with new powers to allow Border Force, Royal Navy and other immigration agencies to turn back and return migrants at sea or on land.
He said: “The problem is that under your current law, you can’t turn them back and UK immigration policy is such that if they are close enough to UK territorial waters, you have to take them, process them and/or resettle them,
“We had that same legislative challenge in Australia. So what the Conservative Government did – and Priti Patel is thinking about in the UK – was to introduce a maritime powers act.
“This authorised our border protection minister and the officials from the various agencies to be able to intercept a boat and to make a reasonable determination that it was intending to breach Australian law whether customs, immigration or biosecurity and so turn them around.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Office is working in collaboration with the French Government and relevant international law enforcement agencies to tackle this dangerous and illegal activity.
We are also developing plans to reform policies and laws that will change the UK’s overall approach to illegal migration and the associated criminality to stop these crossings completely.”
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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