CO-OPERATION WITH FRANCE ON SMALL BOATS IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE INSISTS NICK THOMAS-SYMONDS
CO-OPERATION with France on tackling small boats is working and has stopped 12,000 people crossing the Channel, according to Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “There are 12,000 people who would have crossed the channel in small boats who have not done so because of the cooperation, we’ve also managed to seize 600 boats that otherwise would have been used on that dangerous crossing in the Channel.
“But in addition to that as well, the law enforcement co-operation is yielding results. Just look at the last couple of weeks. There were nine people in Lille this month where French authorities, law enforcement, and our National Crime Agency worked together so that nine people smugglers got sentenced to a total of 64 years.
“These are the people smugglers. These are people, the gang masters, who are actually doing this…and that is why it is about more than only important though, it is the deepening bilateral co-operation with the English Channel.
“It’s about the new strategic partnership that I led the negotiations on with the European Union, to allow us to share more data, things like facial recognition, things like criminal records.
“It’s about work with European countries, which I’ve been in, Poland and Bulgaria, seeing it happening recently because people smugglers, they operate over routes of thousands of miles.
“That work is important to disrupt them, too, but also, by the way, what we’re doing here in Parliament, we’ve got our borders bill giving counter-terror powers to our law enforcement to tackle people smugglers. Hugely important.
“The Conservatives and Reform are opposing that, and they should explain why.”
Asked if it was a mistake to drop the Rwanda scheme, he said: “Spending £700 million on a gimmick that sent four volunteers to Rwanda was not a piece of serious policy-making.
“What is a deterrent is the fact that we’ve had 30,000 people since this government came to office who have not been found to have a right to be here, who have been deported.
“That is the hard yards of action that this government is taking, recognising, yes, it’s a complex problem, but this is not about performative politics. It’s not about gimmicks. It’s about doing the hard yards.”
