There would be “no bigger deterrent” to migrants considering making the perilous journey across the Channel in a small boat than the prospect of facing swift deportation upon arrival, David Davis has said.
The former Brexit secretary has coordinated a letter from more than 50 Tory MPs to Rishi Sunak urging him to pass emergency laws to address the migrant Channel crossings crisis.
They want changes to modern slavery laws to make it easier for people they believe are “bogus asylum seekers”, who say they are victims of trafficking, to be returned to their home country.
The MPs have also demanded “economic migrants” travelling from “safe countries” such as Albania are returned far more rapidly.
Mr Davis told Sky News this morning: “We are focusing on the one that is quickest to fix. This one, if the Government puts through emergency legislation… there is a very, very strong argument for doing this, it would be a very short Bill.
“It would go through and basically we would say to the Albanian population now anybody else who comes across the Channel will be sent back and when that starts to happen, there is no bigger deterrent… than if somebody in your village pays thousands of pounds to a human trafficker and then ends up back in the village three weeks later.”
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