Home secretary says the move ‘sends a message to every migrant currently thinking of paying organised crime gangs to go to the UK’
Keir Starmer has also issued a statement about the detention of small boat arrivals (see 9.58am) on his social media feed. He says:
We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results.
If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back.
The transfers to immigration removal centres are under way as we speak, so we won’t provide operational details at this point that criminal gangs can simply use and exploit.
But no-one should be in any doubt: anyone who arrives from now on is eligible for immediate detention and return.
The pilot has now begun, so the first migrants who have arrived on the small boats are now in detention. We will then swiftly make the referrals to France and that process will now start to be able to return people to France.
It’s the beginning of the pilot and it will build as well over time, but we’re also clear that France is a safe country, so we will robustly defend against any legal challenge that people try.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/aug/07/defence-spending-gordon-brown-interest-rates-immigration-labour-uk-politics-live-news-updates
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2025-08-07 09:12:00
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