Gabrielle Wilde
Guest Reporter
The former Director General of the UK Border Force has cast doubt on the government's latest migration deals with Kurdistan, Turkey and Vietnam, warning they are unlikely to curb Channel crossings without proper return agreements in place.
Tony Smith, speaking on GB News, said the effectiveness of such international arrangements would "depend heavily on their specific details," which have yet to be fully scrutinised.
His comments come as reports suggest the government is exploring Italian-style deals with these nations to reduce illegal migration.
The arrangements would see the UK provide support to strengthen border measures in these countries, following a model that has helped Italy reduce Mediterranean crossings by 62 percent in the first seven months of 2024.
Speaking to GB News he explained: "I think the first thing is, yes, returns are the only effective deterrent. If you know that you're going to be sent back, then you're not going to get in one of those boats and pay 5000 bucks to a smuggler, because there's no point.
“And so that's why I say the Albania deal was a good deal. I mean, I think we need to be clear, people need to understand what's going on down in the Med.
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“The central med route is 64 per cent reduction, it’s pretty big reduction. And that's been negotiated because the EU and Italy have put money into the Coast Guard in Tunisia and Libya and they are actually stopping people from coming across the med to claim asylum, which is what we really want France to do.
“I'm not a politician, I'm a practitioner. I worked in the Border Force for 40 years, man and boy, and I can tell you that actually, the Border Force is here to implement the legislation, the laws that we've got.
“But the bottom line is these days, you can't remove people unless you've got somewhere to send them to. They’re coming across undocumented; we all know why that is. They want to conceal their nationality, their identity, sometimes their age, from us.
“It's really, really hard then for the Border Force to find out who they are, where they've been, where they're from. Then they go through an asylum process, and some countries won't take them back. So that's why I was a fan of the Rwanda deal."
His assessment comes as more than 33,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far in 2024, making it the second-highest yearly total on record.
The year has also been the deadliest, with 68 people known to have lost their lives in the Channel since January 1.
He added: "They've got a number of refugees already in Rwanda. They want people there. The only ones they didn’t really want are nasty people like criminals. But for a migrant who's coming across here you could resettle yourself in Rwanda.
“But I want to keep an eye on the money here, because we're doing deals here, there and everywhere, with other countries.
“One of the major flaws behind the Rwanda policy, part of it didn't work because we didn't have the legislative framework to do, it but was the financial costs of it all.
“And I'd just like to know how much all these other deals are all costing, and what else is costing money in all the other policies that we're developing.
“Because the fact is, without something like that, with a deterrent that is actually going to ensure and say to people in Calais, ‘there's no point you're getting in that boat to come across here because you won't be allowed to stay.’ Without that then what are we going to do instead?
“And I'm not sure that this latest package is going to be a panacea. It's going to be a step in the right direction, but it's not going to stop the boats.”
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Tony Smith, speaking on GB News, said the effectiveness of such international arrangements would "depend heavily on their specific details," which have yet to be fully scrutinised.
His comments come as reports suggest the government is exploring Italian-style deals with these nations to reduce illegal migration.
The arrangements would see the UK provide support to strengthen border measures in these countries, following a model that has helped Italy reduce Mediterranean crossings by 62 percent in the first seven months of 2024.
Speaking to GB News he explained: "I think the first thing is, yes, returns are the only effective deterrent. If you know that you're going to be sent back, then you're not going to get in one of those boats and pay 5000 bucks to a smuggler, because there's no point.
“And so that's why I say the Albania deal was a good deal. I mean, I think we need to be clear, people need to understand what's going on down in the Med.
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“The central med route is 64 per cent reduction, it’s pretty big reduction. And that's been negotiated because the EU and Italy have put money into the Coast Guard in Tunisia and Libya and they are actually stopping people from coming across the med to claim asylum, which is what we really want France to do.
“I'm not a politician, I'm a practitioner. I worked in the Border Force for 40 years, man and boy, and I can tell you that actually, the Border Force is here to implement the legislation, the laws that we've got.
“But the bottom line is these days, you can't remove people unless you've got somewhere to send them to. They’re coming across undocumented; we all know why that is. They want to conceal their nationality, their identity, sometimes their age, from us.
“It's really, really hard then for the Border Force to find out who they are, where they've been, where they're from. Then they go through an asylum process, and some countries won't take them back. So that's why I was a fan of the Rwanda deal."
His assessment comes as more than 33,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far in 2024, making it the second-highest yearly total on record.
The year has also been the deadliest, with 68 people known to have lost their lives in the Channel since January 1.
He added: "They've got a number of refugees already in Rwanda. They want people there. The only ones they didn’t really want are nasty people like criminals. But for a migrant who's coming across here you could resettle yourself in Rwanda.
“But I want to keep an eye on the money here, because we're doing deals here, there and everywhere, with other countries.
“One of the major flaws behind the Rwanda policy, part of it didn't work because we didn't have the legislative framework to do, it but was the financial costs of it all.
“And I'd just like to know how much all these other deals are all costing, and what else is costing money in all the other policies that we're developing.
“Because the fact is, without something like that, with a deterrent that is actually going to ensure and say to people in Calais, ‘there's no point you're getting in that boat to come across here because you won't be allowed to stay.’ Without that then what are we going to do instead?
“And I'm not sure that this latest package is going to be a panacea. It's going to be a step in the right direction, but it's not going to stop the boats.”
Find Out More...