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Rishi Sunak has pledged to “ratchet up” removals of illegal migrants from Albania and insisted the controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will go ahead.
In an interview with Piers Morgan for TalkTV, the prime minister said asylum claims shall be sped as much as a “matter of days or perhaps weeks” and “not months or years”.
Mr Sunak warned arrivals who’re deemed “inadmissible” for settlement in Britain “won’t give you the chance to remain here”.
Within the “overwhelming majority of cases”, he added, they might be sent to “an alternate secure country, be that where you may have come from, if it’s secure, like Albania, or, indeed, Rwanda”.
Asked by Mr Morgan if the federal government’s Rwanda plan would really ever occur, after several legal challenges and a failed try to get a flight off the bottom, Mr Sunak said: “Yes.”
Mr Sunak was being interviewed to mark the top of his first 100 days within the office.
When pressed on his plan for immigration after a record 12 months of arrivals in small boats across the English channel, he touted a deal to fast-track removals of Albanian asylum seekers as considered one of his big achievements as prime minister.
He said: “The system that we’d like, the system that I need to introduce, is one whereby when you come here illegally, you have to be swiftly detained after which in a matter of days or perhaps weeks we are going to hear your claim, not months and years, after which we are going to safely remove you some place else. And if we do this, that’s how we’ll break the cycle.”
The prime minister added: “In the primary 100 days what have we done, what have I done? A, I’ve got a recent take care of France, which is increasing the quantity of patrols which might be happening on French beaches, which is making a difference already. Secondly, I’ve got a brand recent take care of Albania.”
He went on: “We’re putting illegal migrants from Albania back on flights and that can ratchet up over the 12 months. And that’s tangible improvement within the situation. That deal is a recent deal.”
The prime minister said he plans to table recent laws soon to implement the changes to asylum processing. Stopping small boats was considered one of his five key pledges made in a speech last month.
The federal government’s shake-up of asylum rules has drawn several legal challenges and condemnation from refugee aid groups and the UN. The UN Refugee Agency said the plan would violate international law and undermine Britain’s “humanitarian tradition”.
Rishi Sunak’s interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored will air on TalkTV at 8pm on Thursday.
