English Channel Small Boats Incident

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Will the Home Secretary give an update on possible timings for the legal case and reassure the House that Britain will provide full co-operation required by French prosecuting authorities? What urgent action is needed to increase surveillance capacity?

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What steps will be taken to deepen intelligence and law enforcement co-operation with the French authorities and other countries, focusing not just on coastal patrols but also disrupting smuggling routes? Will the Dubs scheme for unaccompanied children be reinstated urgently?

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How will the government ensure that its promise to help 20,000 people through the Afghanistan resettlement scheme and to support 5,000 individuals in the UK Resettlement Scheme's first year is fulfilled?

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Will the government revisit its decision on cutting international aid budgets to assist those fleeing persecution globally, given that this affects efforts to address worldwide migration crises?

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Asked about the ongoing legal case in France, surveillance capacity, law enforcement cooperation, and intelligence sharing. He also questioned the reinstatement of the Dubs scheme and progress on resettlement schemes for Afghan refugees and other vulnerable groups.

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Asked about putting pressure on France for joint patrols within their territorial waters or on land, noting that it would benefit both countries.

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This is a devastating tragedy and our thoughts are with those who have lost their lives, together with their friends and families. I agree that greater co-operation to tackle the dreadful, criminal, people-smuggling gangs is required. However, this awful event should also signal a massive shift in approach towards the provision of safe legal routes to the UK, not doubling down on criminalising those who are the victims if they get here with up to four years in prison.

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I think the whole House knows that my right hon. Friend has strained every sinew since her first day in post to prevent the sorts of tragedies that we saw in the last 24 hours. My right hon. Friend is right to point to the pan-European nature of this problem. Frontex, for example, has quadrupled its expenditure on surveillance alone in the Mediterranean in the past year. She has accurately pointed to her ongoing co-operation with the French as central. Will she tell the House what additional measures she has offered the French in order to crack down on these evil gangs and to cut down this deadly trade?

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Our hearts go out to all those affected by yesterday’s terrible tragedy. There was already deep concern in my constituency about the Government’s approach to protecting men, women and children seeking refuge in the UK. A new resettlement pathway for vulnerable Afghans was announced in August, but three months later, we still do not know when the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme will be operational or how those who are outside the UK will be able to access it. Can the Home Secretary tell us that today?

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What an appalling and entirely foreseeable tragedy. Does the Home Secretary agree that we cannot wait on her excellent Bill? We cannot wait on the French co-operating and taking these poor people back, as they should. We have to act now in a national emergency to save lives. There are only two countries in the world that have solved this problem: Australia, which has an offshore processing centre, and Greece, which does push-back. We have to be tough. We have to face down the human rights lawyers.

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Does the Home Secretary accept that the only reason people traffickers and gangs can operate is due to desperation across Europe and the world? Instead of focusing on more border controls, we should address environmental disasters, wars, poverty, and uphold international conventions. Pushing asylum seekers back is not a solution; it's brutality.

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Does not the Home Secretary agree that if we have a fair system, a queue will form and some people will try to jump it? Therefore, is the only way to deter them showing that crossing illegally means they will be returned?

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Can the Home Secretary confirm that there is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker? Seeking asylum is a human right, and when she says people should seek asylum in the first safe country they reach, she is referring to the Government’s hostile environment policy. What are the routes by which the UK could be considered the first safe country?

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Given yesterday's tragic events, will the Home Secretary consider a humanitarian visa scheme so people do not have to risk their lives on boats? They are seeking safety for their families.

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Given the tragedy in the channel, can the Home Secretary go further with her measures? She needs to disrupt criminal gangs, process claims offshore, and turn boats around in the channel. People who voted for control want to see action.

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Does the Home Secretary agree we are dealing with modern-day slave traders? Will she ensure full force is brought to bear against them, including processing asylum claims at all British embassies?

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Will the Home Secretary join me in asking news outlets to reflect on their use of dehumanising language when referring to those who died? 'Migrants' drown; people drown.

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Can the Home Secretary reassure me that her policy is to look after people but also get a grip on the problem?

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It is truly heartbreaking to think of the lives, hopes and talents extinguished by those attempting to cross the Channel in small boats. The Home Secretary's policies are not working and vulnerable people are paying the price for a lack of safe routes into the UK.

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Supports the Home Secretary's pursuit of all long-term options, including offshore processing. However, in the short term we will see more tragedies unless a strategy can be agreed upon with France.

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Describes the tragedy as murder, asks for withdrawal of the Nationality and Borders Bill to put in place safe routes.

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Asks if illegal immigration should be made a criminal offence to contribute to ending this trade.

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Urges the Home Secretary to make every effort to bring together responses and work across Government authorities.

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Asks the Home Secretary to meet COSLA for home truths about the situation and urges to address this as an international issue.

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Points out Home Office failure on this issue for too long and suggests moving it from the Home Office to Cabinet Office.

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Suggests setting up camps and opportunities for refugees from oppressive regimes like Iran rather than their making perilous journeys.

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Asks Government to act not only to repel but open Afghan citizens resettlement scheme and safe family reunion routes.

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Asks if the Home Secretary agrees that the safe and legal routes are vital and have to be the only viable route into the UK.

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Will the Minister consider utilising private patrol companies offering services with boats ready and equipped to help patrol the sea, such as one called Osiris Marine Solutions that has emailed me to highlight its facilities? Is there a role for private enterprise in helping in the fight against these dangerous crossings?

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Against the background of British troops being sent to Poland to help secure the border with Belarus, can the Home Secretary confirm and clarify the basis of her broad and generous offer to the French? Has she offered Border Force cutters to work close to shore off the French coast in conjunction with the French, and has she offered the deployment of British troops and UK police, if necessary under French command, to operate on French beaches?

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First, may I commend the Home Secretary on her robust response to the Scottish National party? The London Borough of Hillingdon is currently buckling under the strain of looking after around 10% of all the refugees in the whole country, including large numbers who have been bussed up from Dover. Almost none of those people have a route to Scotland. Recognising the importance of safe and legal routes and the comments made by the French Foreign Minister about some of the pull factors in the UK, will my right hon. Friend consider what steps could be taken to remove the grant of asylum from those whose claim is subsequently shown to have been bogus?

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Lives are tragically being lost in the channel, and the British people want the gangs to be smashed, the crossings to be stopped and people to be processed in the nearest country. Again and again, the Opposition have voted against our measures in the Nationality and Borders Bill to cut down on human trafficking via small boats, and the shadow Home Secretary has called our proposals “unconscionable”. Does the Home Secretary agree that Labour’s failure to support the necessary legislation shows that, when the chips are down, they are not only failing to understand the views of the British people but, tragically, failing to protect those being exploited by criminal gangs whose callous and criminal behaviour means that people are being left to die in the channel?

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The situation yesterday was an absolute tragedy, but the Home Secretary has made it absolutely clear that there is no single silver bullet to fix the problem. Does she agree that there are, broadly, three huge areas to cover? The first is international co-operation, which has to be there if we are to work with other countries. Secondly, domestic legislation has to be put in place, which is what we are doing through the Nationality and Borders Bill, to fix our borders and the broken asylum system. Lastly, we need the toughest possible measures and surveillance to crack down on the criminality of those gangs that are aiding and abetting the situation every day.