Hundreds of millions of pounds.
That’s the rumoured cost of Labour’s new border scheme, which they are trying to use to show they have a way to tackle illegal migration.
The sad thing is that these expensive measures would be unnecessary if Labour hadn’t scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it had even started.
The first Rwanda flight was due to take off in late July. But Labour cancelled it with no replacement deterrent plan. The National Crime Agency has said without a deterrent it won’t be possible to stop the boats.
The National Crime Agency is right – which is why under this Labour Government the boat numbers have gone substantially up.
We know that removals deterrents work. If people know they will be removed almost immediately after landing, then pretty soon they will stop coming at all. This worked in Australia around ten years ago when they successfully used a deterrent removal scheme as part of their Operation Sovereign Borders – and this completely stopped Australia’s illegal boat arrivals.
But instead of continuing with a deterrent policy we know would have worked, Labour is left desperately trying other measures which – however well-intentioned – simply won’t end the crossings.
So now we are all paying for more than just the hotels Labour said they’d close.
We’re paying the private healthcare costs of the migrants Labour said they’d deport.
And now we’re going to have to pay other countries to police their own borders as well.
This small fortune could have been used to run flights removing illegal migrants to a safe third country – which would have ended the boat crossings via the deterrent effect.
Yet Labour is determined to undo the previous Conservative Government’s coherent plan to protect the border.
With no deterrent at all, Labour is showing that crime does pay under Yvette Cooper and it’s open season for people traffickers.
