Last month, Migration Watch reported that according to the UK Home Office, there had been no removals in 2021 of illegal cross-Channel migrants to safe European countries.

June 2021 was also the worst month ever recorded for detected illegal crossings of the English Channel in small boats – with 2,179 people known to have arrived: more in one month than were detected for the entirety of the years 2018 and 2019 combined (2,134 in the 24-month period).

There is no real deterrence to criminal people-smugglers who endanger lives on these dangerous journeys. Even the UK Home Office use phrases such as “the business model of people smugglers.” The UK is clearly seen by traffickers as a soft touch.

We must withdraw the UK from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It is this which is preventing the UK from stopping bogus refugees in the Channel, creating a paralysis in enforcement.

UKIP would remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the ECHR: the Strasbourg Court whose interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights has also been known to put the rights of criminals above those of victims. We will also repeal Labour's Human Rights legislation. It has given European judges far too much power over British law making and law enforcement and prevented us deporting terrorists and career criminals or from implementing whole-life sentences. Our own Supreme Court would act as the final authority on matters of Human Rights.

If someone enters the UK via safe country such as France, Belgium or the Netherlands, where they could have claimed asylum, they are not seeking refuge from imminent peril, therefore returning them to that safe third country is not inconsistent with the UN Refugee Convention.

During the 2016 EU Referendum it was claimed there were 3 million EU nationals living in the UK. In March 2019 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised that estimate to 3.7m EU nationals living in the UK. However, it has now been revealed that by 30th June this year just over 6 million applications from EU nationals living in the UK had been received, under the government’s EU Settlement Scheme.

Rapid, mass uncontrolled immigration has been extremely damaging to Britain. It has had an enormous impact on housing and house prices, employment, NHS, and a range of other policy areas. At no point has the government been straight with us.