Govt: Rwanda policy 'deterrent' critical to stopping boats
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick says the way to stop illegal migration and small boat crossings is to "deter people from coming to the UK in the first place". Mr Jenrick adds that a policy such as the Rwanda scheme is critical for ensuring illegal migrants are discouraged from trying to get into the UK without the right documents. Report by Czubalam. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Well, actually, we have seen very significant increases
00:03 in the number of individuals being removed
00:05 from the country this year.
00:08 Since Rishi Sunak became prime minister
00:10 and I became immigration minister,
00:12 we've put a great deal of effort into the removal
00:16 of individuals who either overstayed their visas
00:19 or have come to the country illegally,
00:21 for example, on small boats.
00:23 And we expect those numbers to rise again
00:26 over the second half of this year,
00:28 bringing that back to the kinds of levels
00:30 that we saw before the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:34 That's an important step in the right direction,
00:37 but it's not sufficient.
00:39 What we need to do is deter people
00:41 from coming to the UK in the first place.
00:44 And that's why it's so critical
00:46 that we put in place a serious deterrent
00:48 like our Rwanda policy,
00:49 which of course the Labour Party have voted against 80 times
00:53 when we were passing the legislation
00:55 through parliament earlier this year.