Yvette Cooper will not set a timetable for eliminating “dangerous” boat crossings

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC that the level of Channel crossings by “dangerous” small boats was “far too high”, but she refused to set a timetable for reducing the number.

More than 20,000 people have made the crossing to the UK since Labor took power, compared to 17,020 in the same period last year.

During a visit to Rome, Cooper told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show on Sunday that there had been a “bad history” of interior ministers giving commitments on migration that They then did not last.

But the Conservatives said Labor’s decision to abandon the Conservatives’ Rwanda project deportation program would prove to be a “huge mistake”.

Also speaking to Kuenssberg, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said his party would seek to put in place a “deterrence plan” if returned to power.

The number of migrants crossing the Channel in the first five months of Labor’s term is down compared to the same period in 2022, a record year for arrivals, but similar to the number of migrants crossing the Channel during that period in 2021.

Cooper said the number of crossings was still “deeply damaging” and “dangerous”, and was undermining border security and putting lives at risk.

“Of course we want to continue to progress, of course we want to see boat crossings decrease as quickly as possible.

“What we’re not going to do is treat this with slogans. Rishi Sunak said he would stop the boats in a year.”

Asked whether the government’s reluctance to set public targets for reducing the number of small boat crossings shows it was not a priority, Cooper said: “Quite the contrary.”

“We’ve made it clear that border security is actually one of the fundamental issues.”

Labor has put the fight against smuggling gangs, as well as wider law enforcement efforts, at the heart of its strategy to reduce boat crossings.

The Home Office released new figures on Sunday showing a total of 13,460 foreign nationals have been returned to their home countries through forced or voluntary departures since Labor came to power in July.

The department said the number of forced returns was up compared to the same period last year, arguing that greater collaboration with other countries had made more return flights possible.

Philp argued that rising yields were a continuation of a “trend” that began before this year’s election.

The work has also already expressed an interest by studying the agreement between Italy and Albania, under which some migrants rescued by the Italian coast guard will be sent there to have their asylum applications processed.

This five-year agreement has faced significant challenges, with transfers recently arrested by a court in Rome.

Asked whether Labor would also consider processing overseas asylum applications, Cooper said the government would “look at whatever would work”, but stressed that such a system would have to be “effective”. .

She also blamed the increase in hotel places for asylum seekers since the election on a “collapse in decision-making” before the vote, which she said had left Labor with a “backlog considerable” of files when he came to power.

Speaking on Sky News, Home Secretary Angela Eagle defended the lack of an official timetable for reducing crossings, adding that the public wanted to see “steady progress” rather than a “stolen date from the wind “.

But Philp told the BBC that Australia’s offshore processing policies had been shown to have “deterrent effects” – and promised the Tories would seek to resurrect a Rwanda-style deal if they returned to power .

It is “telling”, he argued, that reducing Channel crossings is not among the government’s six “milestones”. presented by Sir Keir Starmer last week.

Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives have also separately pledged to set a cap on annual legal migration to the UK.

When asked where the cap would be set, Philp did not give details, only saying it would be “much, much lower” than the 350,000 projected for the coming years by official economic forecasters.

The government announced on Sunday that £8 million would be earmarked for new technology to tackle smuggling gangs, including body-worn cameras and fingerprinting kits to “speed up drug enforcement operations”. immigration.”

The new technology will help operational teams build cases “against those working illegally in the UK or the unscrupulous companies that employ them”.

Biometric fingerprinting kits are set to be distributed to those on the front line, which the government says will allow immigration officers to check detained people “on the spot” against police databases.

The interior minister also suggested she hoped to speed up asylum applications from those seeking asylum from countries deemed safe.

Cooper said that despite the lack of a clear target on small boat crossings, border security remained a “clear priority for the government”.

Earlier this week, Germany and the United Kingdom agreed a deal to strengthen Berlin’s law to make it easier to prosecute those who help smuggle people into the United Kingdom.

Under the new agreement, The Interior Ministry says Germany is committed to making the activity a criminal offense.

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg will air on BBC One at 9:00 GMT on Sunday December 15.