London [UK], April 14: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has admitted his plans to stop boats crossing the Channel "won't happen overnight" and declined to promise they could be completed by the next general election.
In an interview with ConservativeHome on Thursday, Sunak said the immigration issue is "complicated" with "no single, simple solution." It comes after figures showed more than 4,500 people had been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats this year despite a promised crackdown. Sunak pledged to "stop the boats" as one of his five main priorities.
Asked if he can do that by the next election, he said: "I've always said this is not something that is easy; it is a complicated problem where there's no single, simple solution that will fix it. "And I've also said it won't happen overnight. I've been very clear about that. "People should know it's very important to me. It's hugely important to the country that we need to fix the system as a matter of fairness. "It's not fair that people are breaking the rules and coming here illegally." Sunak said he expects a legal battle over the "novel, untested" and "ambitious" Illegal Migration Bill going through Parliament. He confirmed "there may well be" an interim judgment from the European Court of Human Rights against the policy, as happened with the Rwanda scheme.
"That's always likely to happen in these cases, and we will robustly challenge those, as we are doing with the Rwandan cases currently working their way through the court system," he said. Sunak added: "You have to expect legal challenge on these things; our job is to defend them robustly, and that's what we'll do." Home Office figures show 77 people in two boats risked a voyage across the Channel last Thursday. They followed 492 people on Wednesday, the year's highest daily total and a revised figure after it was first published. The total number of migrants making crossings last year was 45,755. The government's Illegal Migration Bill is aimed at changing the law to clarify that people arriving in the UK illegally will not be able to remain in the country.
Source: Qatar Tribune
