A UK Government minister has said the Royal Navy is now in control of the English Channel as part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial immigration policy shake-up. Justice and migration minister Tom Pursglove said the service had been brought in to prevent small boats containing migrants from landing on Britain’s beaches.
He defended the UK’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda in a bid to curb Channel crossings. He said: “The Royal Navy is now in command in the Channel. That is the right thing to do because what that is helping us to do is build resource and build that expertise.
“One thing I know people in Kent, and I’ve spoken to people in Kent about this, the thing they’ve been very concerned about is beach landings. The Royal Navy’s additional expertise, as well as that extra resource, will help us to stop that.”
He added said the Rwanda immigration policy would be implemented “quickly”, with migrants already in Britain liable to be “transferred”. Mr Pursglove said: "The point I would make is that we are determined to get on and deliver this policy as quickly as possible without needless delay.
“We are now getting into the stage where we implement this policy quickly and anyone who has arrived in the United Kingdom from January 1 is in scope to be relocated to Rwanda if they’ve arrived through illegal means. That is an important point to get across."
“If you’ve arrived since then, it could well be that you are transferred as part of this arrangement. The key principle here is that nobody should be coming in a small boat to come to the United Kingdom.
“We quite rightly have a rich and proud history in this country of providing sanctuary for thousands of people over the years, and you look at recent events with Ukraine and Afghanistan where we’ve established bespoke schemes, and we will continue to do that.
“But what we can’t have and we can’t accept is people putting their lives in the hands of these evil criminal gangs, and that’s why we think it is important that we take these steps. And that’s why we’re pursuing this and we think it is an important intervention we are making as part of a much wider package of reforms that we are introducing.”
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