Former chief immigration officer, Kevin Saunders, has criticised the government for its approach to tackling huge numbers of migrant crossings, saying “migrants regard Sir Keir Starmer as a saint because he has made it much easier for them to come to the UK and stay in the UK”.
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00:00It was a deterrent, and we saw when Rwanda was being threatened, worries in the camps in Calais.
00:11People were very concerned about coming to the UK because they thought that they may well get
00:19deported to Rwanda. We saw people fleeing to the Republic of Ireland on the so-called Dublin
00:26Express, because they were concerned that they could get removed to Rwanda.
00:34So it was a deterrent, and the feeling was that once the planes started taking off—and
00:42of course that's a very visual thing, aeroplanes taking off—it would have even more of an effect,
00:48and it would slow, if not stop, people coming to the UK. Now that's been kicked into touch,
00:55we have no deterrent at all. The migrants regard Keir Starmer as something of a saint,
01:03because he has made it much easier for them to come to the UK and stay in the UK.
01:11So he's a very popular person in Calais—probably more popular in Calais than he is in England.