The government’s plan to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda risks people embarking on “even more dangerous” routes to the UK, the Home Office’s most senior civil servant has said.

Speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft acknowledged that the controversial plan could lead to riskier Channel crossings being attempted or a return to more attempts by people to stowaway in lorries.

During the committee hearing on Wednesday, SNP MP Stuart McDonald asked Mr Rycroft: “Do you factor in the possibility that in actual fact behaviour changes, so more dangerous crossings are attempted or there’s a move back to clandestine arrivals in the back of lorries, for example?”

In response, Mr Rycroft said: “Absolutely. Yes, I think it’s really important to see this in the round and thank you for the opportunity to agree with you on that. I do agree that we should be thinking about irregular migration in general and all of the different routes.

“And it would be a pyrrhic victory if this set of policies were successful in closing down the small boat route but created something even more dangerous. That would not be a victory at all, so we need to make sure we’re thinking about this in the round.”

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Douglas Mateo

Douglas holds a position as a content writer at Neptune Pine. His academic qualifications in journalism and home science have offered her a wide base from which to line various topics. He has a proficiency in scripting articles related to the Health industry, including new findings, disease-related, or epidemic-related news. Apart from this, Douglas writes an independent blog and assists people in living healthy life.

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Source Link Rwanda policy could create ‘more dangerous’ routes to UK, Home Office admits