‘I’ll fix appalling asylum farce’: Rishi Sunak says migrant system is ‘not fair, not right’… and vows to swiftly detain and send back those arriving in UK illegally

• Rishi Sunak said he will change law to stop Channel migrants claiming asylum
• He said that the asylum system is ‘not fair, not right and it needs to be fixed’
• PM to cut £5.5m a day spend on hotels for 40k migrants waiting to be assessed
• He will secure 10k cheap beds at holiday parks, student halls and MoD sites 

The asylum system is ‘not fair, not right and it needs to be fixed’, Rishi Sunak said last night.

In an interview with the Mail, he vowed to change the law to stop Channel migrants claiming asylum, saying they would be ‘swiftly detained’ and sent back home – or to a ‘safe’ country like Rwanda.

The Prime Minister hit out at the ‘appalling’ waste of spending £5.5million a day on hotels for 40,000 migrants waiting for applications to be assessed.

He said the bill would be cut by securing 10,000 cheap beds at holiday parks, disused student halls and surplus MoD sites. Mr Sunak also vowed to take on human rights lawyers who repeatedly lodged ‘late or spurious claims’.

Discussions: Rishi Sunak with a Border Force official in London

Channel crisis: Migrants picked up by the RNLI at Dungeness in Kent

‘I don’t think that’s right,’ he declared. ‘Part of the new laws that we will bring in next year is to change that.’

The PM answered criticism from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said last week that it was ‘immoral’ to send migrants to Rwanda.

‘There’s nothing fair about people coming here illegally, breaking the rules jumping the queue, when lots of other people don’t do those things,’ said Mr Sunak.

‘Lots of people come here legally and Britain has always been a compassionate, tolerant, welcoming place for those who really need refuge.

‘But when people see that the rules are being broken, people are jumping the queue, I think that undermines people’s trust in the system. They’re rightly angry about that. I’m angry about that. And I want to make sure that we fix it. And I think our approach is the right approach. It is a fair approach. And this will always be a generous country.’

His comments came as he unveiled a package of short-term measures to tackle the Channel migrant crisis, including the deportation of thousands of Albanians.

Mr Sunak pledged to pour resources into the Home Office and cut red tape in order to clear the huge backlog of unprocessed asylum claims by the end of next year. The wider asylum backlog is jamming up the system with more than 148,000 unresolved initial claims. Downing Street later said Mr Sunak’s pledge applied to a legacy backlog of 92,601 cases lodged before July.

Would-be migrants are brought ashore by a lifeboat in Dungeness a few days ago

The PM said clearing this was important, but added: ‘What is more important is for us to deliver an immigration system that means if someone comes here illegally, they have no right to stay and then they should be swiftly detained and sent back to either their own country or a safe alternative. That’s what I want to deliver – I think that’s what Mail readers in the country want.

‘That’s why Rwanda is important because we want to have an alternative for people who can’t go back to their own country. We’ll continue to pursue that policy.

‘But I’m also prepared to pass new laws early next year to make sure that we have all the powers and laws at our disposal to say that if you come here illegally, you have no right to stay that seems to me to be common sense. It’s reasonable. It’s fair. It’s what the British people want.’

Speaking in the Commons earlier the PM set out a five-step plan, including:

• Double the number of asylum caseworkers and a streamlined process;
• A dedicated unit with 400 specialists to process Albanian claims ‘within weeks’;
• A new agreement with the Albanian government making it easier to send back migrants who arrive illegally;
• Border Force officers being embedded at Tirana airport in Albania to cut the number of illegal migrants heading for the UK, and to combat traffickers;
• The threshold for modern slavery claims being raised ‘significantly’, requiring evidence to show exploitation rather than simply a ‘suspicion’;
• Illegal workers to be prevented from getting UK bank accounts;
• A 50 per cent increase in raids to combat illegal working;
• A ‘small boats operational command’ bringing together the military, Border Force and the National Crime Agency;
• More than 700 new staff and double the funding to the NCA to tackle organised immigration crime;
• An annual quota on asylum numbers to be set by parliament;
• A pledge to create more ‘safe and legal routes’ for migrants, in conjunction with the UN refugee agency.

Tory strategists have identified tackling the migrant crisis as essential to reviving the party’s electoral fortunes and delivering on a manifesto pledge to ‘take back control’ of borders.

Mr Sunak has been holding intensive talks with Home Secretary Suella Braverman on the details of an approach to get the situation under control.

‘Put low-skill arrivals in rural areas’

Lower-skilled foreign workers should be allowed to move to rural areas, government advisers said yesterday.

The Migration Advisory Committee suggested visa requirements could be loosened if incomers agreed to live in towns and villages with shrinking populations. Professor Brian Bell, who chairs the Home Office-backed committee, said the move could help fill vacancies in agriculture, fishing and hospitality and combat the drain of younger people to larger towns and to cities.

The rural visa would allow arrivals to stay long term and eventually win the right to settle permanently. Professor Bell said ministers should consider setting up a pilot scheme to test the idea.

Speaking to the Mail yesterday, the Prime Minister declined to say that the new strategy would bring down the number crossing the Channel illegally next year.

He said: ‘I want to be honest with people – this is not an easy problem to fix. Right? It’s complicated. There isn’t a single simple solution that will solve it, and it won’t be done overnight. I don’t want to be up front with people about that. But what people should take away from today is that I share their frustration and anger about the current system.

‘They’ve got a Prime Minister and a Government that is gripping this situation and is determined to make a difference to reduce illegal migration and to stop the boats.’

The surge in Channel crossings this year has been driven in part by the arrival of almost 13,000 people from Albania – a country that the PM described yesterday as ‘safe and prosperous’.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the PM of putting forward ‘unworkable gimmicks’. And Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the plan was ‘deeply disturbing and flies in the face of international law’.

‘Many people from Albania face real danger and persecution – we must not turn our backs on them or any other nationality seeking asylum,’ he added.

But Tory MP Lee Anderson said: ‘In the real world, people know that the vast majority of those travelling here on small boats are not genuine refugees.’

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