LONDON (Reuters) -Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday Britain had agreed a new deal with Albania to crack down on the number of illegal migrants arriving on small boats, as part of measures to speed up the processing of asylum seekers.
The number of Albanians arriving in England across the Channel has spiked in the last two years with government figures showing they account for the highest number of people arriving by this route.
Sunak said that early next year the government would introduce legislation which would ban migrants who cross the English Channel from staying in Britain.
“If you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here,” Sunak told parliament. “Instead, you will be detained and swiftly returned either to your home country or to a safe country where your asylum claim will be considered.”
The issue of migrants arriving on small boats has become a major political issue for Conservative government, particularly in working-class areas in the north and central England, where migrants are blamed for making it harder to find work and stretching public services.
“People are right to be angry because they see what I see which is that this simply isn’t fair,” Sunak said. “It is not cruel or unkind to want to break the stranglehold of criminal gangs who trade in human misery … enough is enough.”
(Reporting by Sarah Young and Farouq Suleiman, Writing by Andrew MacAskill, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
