PM statement on illegal migration: 13 December 2022

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a statement to the House of Commons on illegal migration.
Mr Speaker, before I start, I know the whole House will join me in expressing our sympathies to the families of those who lost their children so tragically in Solihull.

I hope the whole house would agree… there is a complex moral dimension to illegal migration.
The balancing of our duty to support people in dire need… with the responsibility to have genuine control of our borders… understandably provokes strong feelings. And so… it is my view… that the basis for any solution shouldn’t just be ‘what works’… but what is right.

The simplest moral framing for this issue… one I believe members on all sides of this House believe in… is fairness…

Mr Speaker… It is unfair that people come here illegally.
It is unfair on those with a genuine case for asylum…
…when our capacity to help is taken up by people coming through, and from, countries that are perfectly safe.

It is unfair on those who come here legally…
…when others come here by cheating the system.
And above all, it is unfair on the British people who play by the rules…

…when others come here illegally and benefit from breaking those rules.
So people are right to be angry… Mr Speaker… because they see what I see… which is that this simply isn’t fair…

It is not cruel or unkind to want to break the stranglehold of the criminal gangs who trade in human misery and who exploit our system and laws…
Enough is enough.

As currently constructed the global asylum framework has become obsolete.
Today there are 100 million people displaced globally.

Hostile states are using migration as a weapon on the very borders of Europe.
And as the world becomes more unstable – and the effects of climate change make more places uninhabitable – the numbers displaced will only grow.

Britain helped craft the 1951 Refugee Convention to protect those fleeing persecution.
The Rt Hon Member for Maidenhead passed the world’s first Modern Slavery Act in 2015.
And in the last year we have opened our hearts and homes to people from Hong Kong Afghanistan and Ukraine

Thousands of families will be setting extra places around the Christmas table this year.
No-one, no-one can doubt our generosity of spirit.

But today far too many of the beneficiaries of that generosity are not those directly fleeing war zones or at risk of persecution but people crossing the channel in small boats.
Many originate from fundamentally safe countries.

Their journeys are not ad hoc… but coordinated by ruthless, organised criminals.
And every single journey risks the lives of women, children – and we should be honest, mostly men, at sea.

Mr Speaker… This is not what previous generations intended when they drafted our humanitarian laws.

Nor is it the purpose of the numerous international treaties to which the UK is a signatory.
And unless we act now and decisively, this will only get worse.

Already in just seven weeks since I became Prime Minister, we have delivered the largest ever small boats deal with France.

For the first-time, UK and French officers are embedded in respective operations in Dover and Northern France.

We’ve re-established the Calais Group of Northern European nations – to disrupt traffickers all along the migration route.

And last week this group set a long-term ambition for a UK-EU wide agreement on migration.
Of course, this is not a panacea, and we need to go much further.

Over the last month the Home Secretary and I have studied every aspect of this issue in detail, and we can now set out five new steps today.

First, our policing of the channel has been too fragmented, with different people, doing different things, being pulled in different directions.

So we will establish a new, permanent, unified Small Boats Operational Command.
This will bring together our military, our civilian capabilities, and the National Crime Agency.
It will coordinate our intelligence, interception, processing, and enforcement.

And use all available technology, including drones for reconnaissance and surveillance, to pick people up and identify and then prosecute more gang-led boat pilots.

We’re adding more than 700 new staff and also doubling the funding given to the NCA for tackling organised immigration crime in Europe.

Second, these extra resources will free up immigration officers to go back to enforcement which, will in turn, allow us to increase raids on illegal working by 50%.

And it’s frankly absurd that today illegal migrants can get bank accounts which help them live and work here. So we will re-start data sharing to stop this.

Third, it’s unfair and appalling that we are spending £5.5 million every day on using hotels to house asylum seekers.

So, we will shortly bring forward a range of alternative sites such as disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites.

We have already identified locations that could accommodate 10,000 people and are in active discussions to secure these and many more.

Our aim is to add thousands of places through this type of accommodation in the coming months – at half the cost of hotels.