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A senior minister has defended plans to strike deals with countries like Libya, Vietnam, and even the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to help tackle the illegal migrant crisis and stop the small boats crossing.
Transport secretary Louise Haigh confirmed reports in The Sunday Times that home secretary Yvette Cooper and Sir Keir Starmer were in talks with a range of countries to end the migrant crisis.
But speaking on Sky News’ Sunday morning show with Sir Trevor Phillips, she insisted that the deals were not the same as the Tories’ failed Rwanda scheme, which cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions and was cancelled as soon as Labour took power.
Ms Haigh said: “The prime minister and home secretary have made no secret that this is an international problem which needs international solutions. That is why both of them have been working with their counterparts across Europe and across the world to make sure we have deals in place to make sure we can tackle this problem.
“We can’t tackle it on our own at the border. That is why the prime minister was at Interpol recently. We need to tackle the problem upstream.”
Instead of being a deportation programme, as Rwanda was intended to be, the deals with countries like Vietnam will be similar to the ones which Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has struck with countries such as Libya to prevent migrants from setting off on the perilous journey to Europe.
The deals involve handing the countries millions of pounds to try to tackle the problem at source.
Sir Keir recently met with Ms Meloni to discuss the migration crisis as it was being reported that her efforts had led to a 62 per cent reduction in illegal migrants coming across the Mediterranean.
Pressed by Sir Trevor on why this was different from the Rwanda scheme, Ms Haigh said: “Rwanda was a failed gimmick that failed to solve the problem. Rwanda wasn’t working well, was costing the taxpayer a fortune and wasn’t working as a deterrent.”
She refused to discuss how much the deals will cost when, as expected, they are agreed at the end of this year but admitted that it will be “millions”.
But she pointed out: “We are wasting hundreds of millions at the moment with hotel accommodation.”
The deals will go hand in hand with Sir Keir’s revamped Border Command to help stop the small boats.
However, as things stand, the number of migrants crossing the Channel is up this year. As of 11 November, 32,900 people had crossed in 2024. In the whole of 2023, 29,437 people came to the UK in small boats.