LAST UPDATE | 19 Apr 2022
THE DUP’S SAMMY Wilson has said he supports UK plans to send migrants who cross the English Channel to Rwanda but has questioned whether the strategy will work.
The East Antrim MP made the comments in the House of Commons this afternoon, prompting SDLP leader Colum Eastwood to respond with “course you do”.
UK Secretary of State Priti Patel issued a robust defence of the controversial plans today following attacks from former prime minister Theresa May amongst others.
The proposals will see some asylum seekers who cross the English Channel by boat sent to Rwanda while their claims for asylum in the UK are being processed.
Questioned today about whether women and children will be sent to Rwanda, Patel refused to provide the exact criteria of those who will be, claiming that this information could be used by the people smugglers.
The new plans have been criticised from both inside and outside the political world, with the Archbishop of Canterbury using an Easter sermon to say the plans were “opposite the nature of God”.
The DUP’s Wilson today however said he was supportive of the plans but questioned whether they would be effective if there was still a path for those involved to enter the UK.
“I suspect that there are more asylum seekers housed in my constituency than in the constituency of many who have been hectoring the Secretary of State this afternoon,” Wilson said.
I’ve heard their stories and I know the misery which is caused by people trafficking and the desperation of those who hand over huge amounts of money and risk their lives to get into the United Kingdom. And therefore I do support the Secretary of State’s aim and object to wreck this evil trade.
“But the question I want to ask is this. Secretary of State if there is a lengthy processing procedure and if at the end of that a very small percentage of those who are processed are actually left the country, do the people smugglers still not have an argument that is worth your while handing over money to us and risking your lives.”
During lengthy tene exchanges today, Patel claimed that the UK “infinite compassion” but that illegal migration “puts unsustainable pressures” on UK public services
Patel said tthat access to the UK’s asylum system “should be based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers”
“We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not,” she said.
To jeers in the chamber, Patel claimed that the current UK government has “done more than any other in recent history to support those fleeing persecution, conflict or instability.”
She said, however, that the UK “cannot control our borders without tackling illegal migration”.
Which, Mr. Speaker, is facilitated by people smugglers, serious organised criminals that profit from human misery, who do not care about people drowning in the Channel, or suffocated in the back of containers. We must break their lethal and evil business model by removing the demand for their repugnant activities.
Responding to Patel’s statement, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the plans “unworkable, unethical and extortionate” and claimed it was a “shameful and desperate attempt to distract from the Prime Minister’s law-breaking”.
Cooper also focused on the cost of the plan, saying there is “no information” on how much it will cost.
The policies that she has announced today are unworkable and ethical and extortionate in the cost for the British taxpayer. There’s no information from the Home Secretary about the costs today. Will she admit the €120 million she’s announced doesn’t pay for a single person to be transferred.
Former prime minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that she does not support the government’s plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda on the grounds of “legality, practicality and efficacy”.
Following suggestions that the plan would not see women and children relocated to Rwanda, May sought assurances that the plan would lead to an increase in the trafficking of women and children.
Patel replied that “the full details” of the agreement between the UK and Rwanda had been published but that she would not detail the exact “eligibility criteria” for those being relocated as smuggling gangs could potentially “exploit various loopholes in our existing laws”.
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