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Migrant crisis would end 'very quickly' if they were returned to France, ex-Immigration Minister tells GB News
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Jul 1, 2025
Sir Keir Starmer has been scolded for his handling of Britain's migrant crisis by ex-Immigration Minister Kevin Foster, as he claimed the Labour Government has "no real strategy".Speaking to GB News, Foster stated that although "smash the gangs is a great election slogan", the plan "simply isn't working".FULL STORY HERE.
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Absolutely, Martin. And I expect we can probably diarise sometime later this month to be talking about it going through 30,000 at the rates of arrivals we are seeing
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And as you've touched on already, this is the highest rate of arrivals we've seen at this point in any year since the small boat crisis began
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It's a clear sign that smash the gangs, you know, a great slogan for a general election campaign, but not a real strategy for government just simply isn't working
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The government needs to look at a wider strategy across all the areas, from what attracts people to do this, to how they're processed, to then how they're removed alongside prosecuting the gangs involved in this work
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But in many cases, they just seem to be doubling down on what their strategy already is
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And that just isn't working. That's worth pointing out, of course, Kevin Foster
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that when the Conservative Party were in power since the small boats crisis began in 2018
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it was also, let's face it, a bit of a disaster. Rishi Sunak hung by his own petard
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when he promised to stop the boats. Of course, he couldn't. And that did for your government in part
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a large part of it I would countenance But to today there doesn seem to be any slowdown in this tide In fact it going up What needs to be done Kevin Foster Of course you no doubt saying we
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need a deterrent like Rwanda. But look at these pictures on our screens now. Illegal immigrants
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simply up to their knees in water, not a copper inside. Nobody on the French side seems to
1:27
be lifting a finger to stop it. Is it time to stop sending money? Stop LaDosh
1:31
Well, I think, Martin, what we need is not just having Rwanda as part of it is a deterrent
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And yes, that would have had an impact. And we'd seen numbers start to fall. But it's looking at the whole process we have
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In fact, what we've just seen featured in the United States, you know, how you, for example, when people arrive, what you do with them, how you hold them, how you make sure you process them quickly and then look to remove them
1:53
And by the way, it's not just Donald Trump doing that. Greece has done that with large accommodation centres
1:58
You referred to a couple of the plans that have been in the past. Again, those sorts of plans need to be driven forward
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Reviewing our courts. Once you've actually decided you want to remove someone, how quickly can you do that
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And that's when issues like the ECHR and the famous Article 8 right to a chicken nugget start coming into play
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What changes should be made to our laws to make that more possible And then yes working with our neighbours because if we could return people to France that would end this very quickly Although some of the deals being talked about seem to involve us potentially taking people one way for sending
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people back, which could undermine that idea. And I know also other countries in Europe
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like Italy and Greece, have objected to that idea. So it's yet to be seen actually France
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could push ahead with that if that's what the UK wanted to do
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So we do have to put a general approach to this. There's not just one solution
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but we can certainly see that just saying smash the gangs isn't working. I mean, this notion of one in, one out
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I mean, a lot of people watching this year would say it should be non in and all out
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The notion that we can deport somebody who comes here illegally, which, by the way, the French patently failed to stop them coming
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in return, we have to take an asylum seeker from France as some kind of tit-for-tat deal
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shows how broken this system is. It's just time to admit the French is no friend of ours when it
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comes to controlling immigration. There's nothing in it for them, apart from half a billion quid a
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year. Well, I think, Martin, there's also, they actually need to look at the impact this is having
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in the north of France Lawlessness criminality shootings stabbings There a lot of people around the Pas de Calais are are absolutely fed up with the criminality this has brought to France It not just residents in Dover who suffered the impact of this
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it's residents in and around Calais. People who can't store a boat without having a check
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that someone's not in it. People who can't drive a lorry in the air without it being attacked
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People see an absolute criminality in their communities. And it's really time that those on the French side actually see
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that resolving this for us also is about resolving those problems for them
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I'm not sure President Macron will do that, but perhaps as we come closer to a French presidential election
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there'll be much more of a drive that actually, why is France happy to host this lawlessness in its territory
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And we're actually working together with us, not on a one-in-one-out, but perhaps working together with us that someone who shouldn't be coming to our country
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who has spurned the chance to claim asylum in their country, is being removed perhaps to a third country or removed home
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That's something actually that both of us could work on, and that should make quite a difference to this scenario
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Whereas I think a one-in-one-out arrangement, well, what happens if 10 of us are in a boat
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and some of us, you know, go, a few of our friends stay, do our friends who apply get to come because we went in a boat
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That could be a really bizarre incentive created. Yeah
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