Prime Minister details progress made to stop illegal border crossings

The Prime Minister’s Office and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on 5 June that the plan to stop the boats is beginning to work, with small boat arrivals into the UK reprotedly down by 20 percent so far this year.

During a speech at the Western Jet Foil Processing Centre in Dover, the Prime Minister detailed the progress made on the government’s plans to combat illegal border crossings. Sunak also confirmed the following: the UK’s deal with France prevented 33,000 illegal crossings last year, 40 percent more than the year before; due to the UK’s partnership with the government of Albania, Albanian small boat arrivals are down 90 percent year-on-year and the UK has returned more than 1,800 Albanian illegal migrants and foreign criminals on weekly flights since December; the UK has increased the number of illegal working raids by more than 50 percent, and arrests have more than doubled; and the legacy asylum backlog is down almost a fifth since December, with the government said to be on track to deliver its target of clearing the backlog completely by the end of the year.

The Prime Minister also confirmed other developments related to the priority to stop the boats, including doubling the funding provided to the National Crime Agency to combat organised immigration crime, with the arrest of illegal workers in the UK more than doubling; and requesting evidence to back up modern slavery claims, which is said to have led to the tripling of refusal rates. Since the Stop the Boats Bill passed the House of Commons, Sunak confirmed that the government has been preparing so that once any legal challenges are complete, the government will be able to put the Bill into practice.