In 2001 former conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard uttered these very blunt words "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."
It is abundantly clear to every fair-minded observer, the Home Secretary included, that given 38,000 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in over 900 boats in 2022 to date, compared with 28,526 last year, the UK government has lost control over who is arriving in southern England, and the manner in which they are arriving.
Living and working in the United Kingdom isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. The best way to stop illegal maritime arrivals is deterrence, and over 20 years of Australian immigration policy proves this.
Australia has long grappled with how to stop illegal boat arrivals. Australia's onshore mandatory detention policy for illegal immigrants was introduced in 1992 by the then Labour government of Paul Keating.
In 2001 John Howard introduced a policy of offshore detention, in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and turn backs, for unauthorised immigrants attempting to enter Australia by boat. “Between 2002 and 2008 only 23 boats arrived in Australia compared to 43 carrying more than 5,000 asylum-seekers in 2001 alone.”
Labour was elected in Australia in late 2007 and almost immediately reversed the conservatives’ successful policies. Between 2008 and 2013 Labour’s catastrophic decision to “dismantle the Howard government’s successful border protection policies directly resulted in more than 51,000 illegal maritime arrivals, including more than 8400 children, while it has been estimated that at least 1200 people (including hundreds of children) perished at sea.”
When conservative Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister in 2013, he immediately restored order to Australia’s immigration system with his military-led ‘Operation Sovereign Borders.’
This consisted of temporary protection visas for people found to be refugees, mandatory detention on Papua New Guinea and Nauru while processing asylum claims, and instructions to the Royal Australian Navy to turn back boats when safe to do so. This policy worked, the boats, and the tragic deaths at sea, stopped immediately.
Aside from temporary protection visas, the current Australian Labour government has kept the conservative’s policy. Australia’s Labour Deputy Prime Minister wrote “offshore processing and regional resettlement, together with the Coalition’s policy of turn-backs, is what stopped the boats. Neither could have succeeded in isolation. Together they have ended a human tragedy.”
Over 50 per cent of Australia’s population were either born overseas or have a parent born overseas so ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ was important because it restored Australians' overwhelming support for, and respect for, the integrity of the immigration system.
Former conservative leader and Foreign Minister in Australia, Alexander Downer, wrote an independent review for the Home Office of the UK’s Border Force. Regarding the situation in the channel where 21 people drowned last November, Mr Downer recommended, “The government should maintain the option of turnaround tactics when it is safe and legal to do so.”
He also recommended, “People that have entered the UK should be moved to a third country rapidly for assessment under the UN Convention and other relevant legislation.” He also advised that “Diplomatic efforts to resolve this problem jointly with France would be a significant contribution to a sustainable solution... In the interim, every migrant boat making the journey to UK shores needs to be tracked and intercepted. There should be no uncontrolled beach landings. And those entering the UK illegally should be removed as soon as is practicable, in line with the New Plan for Immigration.”
These are sound, proportionate, and reasonable recommendations that have worked in Australia for years. The Rwanda deal must be kept on the table and persevered with. Deterrence works when dealing with desperate people being exploited by people smugglers. We know this because even the Labour Party in Australia has accepted deterrence works too.
It is moral for governments to deter people from making dangerous journeys by boat, to ensure the immigration system is orderly, and to guarantee those claiming asylum are legitimate and are not simply economic migrants attempting to jump the queue. I just wonder if the British Labour Party’s position on this issue is more open slather than is currently the case?
Surely post-Brexit, genuine control over the UK’s borders by the UK government is a fundamental principle of being a sovereign and independent island power?