Rishi Sunak Says Illegal Immigrants Taking Advantage of Britain’s ‘Generosity of Spirit’

But Labour's Sir Keir Starmer says Sunak's announcements 'feel like Groundhog Day'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addresses journalists at the Western Jetfoil terminal in Dover, Kent, on June 5, 2023. (PA)

Rishi Sunak says the British government has bought or rented three barges to house up to 1,500 illegal immigrants and has said he makes no apology for “tough measures” which are being used to stem the tide of small boats crossing the English Channel.

The first of the barges is due to dock in Portland, Dorset, later this month and will house 500 men who have claimed asylum in Britain.

Speaking at an event in the port of Dover on Monday, Sunak said there was a danger Britain’s liberal values and its willingness to offer sanctuary to those in need was being exploited by people traffickers.

He said: “I know these are tough measures and I make no apology for that. We cannot allow our generosity of spirit to be used as a weapon against us or against those who are being pushed to risk their lives in the channel by criminal gangs.”

Sunak said the amount of small boat crossings was down by 20 percent and said, “Our plan is starting to work.”

But he said there was a “long way to go” and said it was likely large numbers would be brought across the Channel from France and Belgium by traffickers this summer.

Sunak unveiled plans for the two new barges and said he was following up on his promise to “get illegal migrants out of hotels and into alternative sites.”

He also confirmed the Home Office would begin using two new sites at Wethersfield in Essex and Scampton in Lincolnshire—both former RAF bases—which could house 3,000 by the end of the year.

The Western Jetfoil immigrant processing facility at Dover docks, Kent, England, on Nov. 9, 2022. (Chris Summers/The Epoch Times)

Sunak said, “While we’re bringing those sites online, we’re also making more efficient use of hotels by asking people to share rooms where it’s appropriate to do so.”

Asylum Seekers ‘Should be Willing to Share Hotel Rooms’

Sunak then sent a direct message to genuine asylum seekers, “If you’re coming here illegally, claiming sanctuary from death, torture or persecution, then you should be willing to share a taxpayer-funded hotel room in central London.”

Sunak said: “Our plan is starting to work. Before I launched my plan in December, the number entering the UK illegally in small boats had more than quadrupled in two years. Some said this problem was insoluble, or just a fact of 21st century life.”

“They’d lost faith in politicians to put in the hard yards to do something about it. And of course, we still have a long way to go. But in the five months since I launched the plan, crossings are now down 20 percent compared to last year,” he added.

“This is the first time since this problem began that arrivals between January and May have fallen compared to the year before,” Sunak said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak makes a statement about illegal immigrants at Western Jet Foil in Dover, Kent on June 5, 2023. (PA)

Sunak’s comments came a day after immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the Illegal Migration Bill to detain immigrants who arrive through unauthorised means before returning them home or to a third country, such as Rwanda, would alleviate the pressure.

“That will create the deterrent we desperately need, it will break the business model of the people smuggle gangs and it will stop the system from coming under intolerable pressure like it is today,” Jenrick told the BBC on Sunday.

The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, said there was nothing new in Sunak’s announcement.

Starmer, who was in Somerset, told journalists: “Everybody wants to make sure that we stop the boats, we don’t want people making that dangerous journey. All we’ve really had from the government though is the announcement of a policy that doesn’t work and then the reannouncement of the same policy, essentially.”

Starmer: ‘Growing Sense of Frustration’

“It often feels, I think, like Groundhog Day and meanwhile that’s costing a fortune for the taxpayer and there’s this growing sense of frustration,” he added.

Conservative-majority Braintree District Council has opposed the use of the Wethersfield site for migrants.

The council’s leader Graham Butland said last month, “We have received notification that our appeal against the High Court’s decision regarding the interpretation of Class Q and the refusal to grant the council an injunction to stop the Home Office’s proposals to provide accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield airfield will be heard on June 12.”

The controversy over the use of the Wethersfield site has echoes of the issues last year at Manston in Kent, which at one point was housing 4,000 illegal immigrants who had been intercepted by the Royal Navy as they crossed the Channel.

Guy Wilson, chairman of Manston Parish Council, told The Epoch Times in November 2022: “My non-PC answer is that we have a reduced workforce in England and Scotland and a lot of these young migrants from Albania—those aged 18 to 30—could be hopefully utilised by Nicola Sturgeon. They could join the workforce. They could get work permits to work in Scotland and boost the Scottish economy and productivity quite considerably. Most of the migrants are prepared to work for next to nothing.”