Small boat crossings would be ‘thousands higher’ under the Tories, Yvette Cooper says
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Home secretary says also that ministers are examining third-country processing for people arriving in the UK illegally. Small boat crossings would be “thousands higher” under the Conservatives, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said, though they remain 20% higher than this time last year.
But Cooper declined to say when people could expect to see the number reduce, saying only that the government was making progress on reducing the asylum backlog, accusing the previous government of having “crash[ed] the asylum system”. In an interview with the BBC, Cooper hinted again that the UK was interested in examining third-country processing for migrants who had arrived in the UK illegally from safe countries.
She said the government was on track for its worst year for migrant crossings had the same approach continued, but said the number of crossings was lower than 2022. The number of people who have arrived in Britain on small boats so far this year stands at 34,880, up 20% on this time last year but down 22% on 2022.
On Sunday, Cooper announced the formation of a joint unit in the Foreign Office and Home Office to monitor migration and returns agreements. It is expected to put new a focus on UK embassies to prioritise bringing down small boat crossings and drive up returns, especially in source and transit countries.
Cooper told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “What we inherited from the first half of this year … record high levels of boat crossings – had that continued we were on track really for the worst year ever for small boat crossings.
