FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has rejected the Conservatives' approach to working with European countries to stop migrant crossings. The Financial Times notes that during a press release, Cooper said he would work "in partnership" with foreign governments to tackle the issue.
The Home Secretary suggested that Great Britain consider a scheme similar to Italy's plan for processing migrants in Albania. But she insisted the fledgling scheme was "very different" to the Rwanda Conservatives' plan, which Keir Starmer scrapped when he arrived in Downing Street in July.
The issue of small boat crossings has gained even more prominence in recent days following the deaths of eight migrants in the Channel overnight over the weekend. Asked why authorities could not turn the dinghies back and tow them to France, Cooper said it was important to ensure they had the right agreements and partnerships in place with other European countries.
"I think there's been a real history, under the previous government, of a bit of shouting overseas rather than building those partnerships locally. And we want to make sure we have those to go after the gangs and prevent these crossings in the first place, and also, especially when the boats are also in shallow water, to prevent them from losing their lives as they go further,” she said.
Starmer is currently in Italy on a visit to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the prime minister said he was "interested" in Italy's deal with Albania to send migrants there after being rescued at sea. Under the terms of the agreement, Italy sends rescued migrants from countries such as North Africa to Albania to process their asylum claims.
Cooper said Italy's scheme isn't working yet and they don't know how it will work, but said the British government will look at what works. She explained that the focus of Albania's plan was on trying to set up a rapid return system.
"This is what they are trying to do, a fast-track decision-making for cases where people arrive in Italy who have come from mostly safe countries. We think there are alternative ways to get quick decisions and returns for people coming from mostly safe countries, but we've always said, the Prime Minister has always said, we'll always look at whatever works," she said.
She said they were also looking at Italy's preventive work with North African countries to prevent ships from crossing in the first place, as well as efforts to quickly tackle gangs and return migrants if their asylum claims were not accepted.
Cooper said the biggest changes were fighting the criminal gangs that operate the crossings and working with other European countries to dismantle smuggling networks. It comes after the government hired Martin Heitt, the former chairman of the National Council of Police Chiefs, as Border Security Commander. Cooper said the government was improving enforcement work, recruiting additional police and officers, security officers to go after the gang and working in much closer partnership with new technology in the country.
Lini një Përgjigje