WATCH: 'Nonsense!' Migration expert blasts Labour's one for one migrant exchange deal

GB News

Labour is reportedly close to finalising a controversial "one in, one out" migrant exchange deal with France that has been branded "nonsensical" by migration expert Steven Woolfe.The agreement, which could be announced within days, would see France accept Channel migrants back for the first time in exchange for Britain taking an equal number of asylum seekers from French processing centres.Speaking to GB News, director of The Centre For Migration Steven Woolfe said: "The idea of a one in, one out system is nonsensical. The theory is that if someone is denied asylum through an official hub in Paris or Lille and still chooses to cross on a boat, they’ll be returned."But in reality, they’ll keep trying until they get in. We’re already seeing this with people hiding in lorries, around 5,000 a year arrive this way. These routes existed before Brexit, under the old Dublin II system, and they continue now."READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Transcript

00:00indicated the scheme is a work in progress with hope that an announcement could be agreed in

00:05principle and can happen soon. Well, we're now joined by a director at the Centre for Migration

00:10and Prosperity, Stephen Wolfe. Good to see you this morning. Stephen, what do you make of this

00:14plan? This is a plan that has been thought about by non-governmental organisations and American

00:21think tanks like the Migration Policy Institute, which has established the idea that the UK and

00:29France should copy the Safe Mobility Initiative that was established by Joe Biden, one that Donald

00:36Trump cancelled immediately. And why I believe it will be an absolute failure is that it also

00:42recognises that the numbers of people coming into the United Kingdom of France won't change.

00:47It's just that the way that they will come into will change. They talk about, for example,

00:53an office being established across France, maybe in Paris, maybe in Lille. And then once Channel

00:59once migrants are given the right to come to the United Kingdom, they'll get on a charter plane

01:04instead of getting onto a boat. And so that's the idea. We'll now be watching them coming into the

01:10boats, onto planes and boats. So this idea is not about reducing the numbers. It's about just reducing

01:16the images of seeing people coming in across boats. There will still be the need for hotels. There will

01:22still be the need for assessing what parts of the country these people go to.

01:27I mean, this doesn't stop the boats, does it? It doesn't smash the gangs. But do you think if

01:32this is just one of the many different things that the government is working on, it could work in

01:37theory? Well, what are you trying to reduce? Just stopping the images of the people coming across the

01:43boats on the Channel migrants? It certainly will reduce them because those people will say,

01:48I'll go to Paris, I'll go to Lille. It won't certainly, I wouldn't imagine it would be in

01:52Cali because Cali is an issue point for the French and they would like to see the camps reduced. But it

01:58won't reduce the numbers and it won't stop the gangs either because the gangs will still be picking

02:02them up in Afghanistan, Somalia, India, sorry, Iran and Iraq. And they'll still be paying for those

02:10journeys to get to France. It's just how they will arrive here. And the idea that you'll get in one in,

02:16one out is also nonsensical because the concept is if you arrive on the boat having failed your

02:21asylum process in, say, Lille or Paris, you'll still get onto the boat and we'll then send you back.

02:28All they'll do is keep doing it until they get in because now they're coming on the backs of lorries.

02:32We know that that continues another 5,000 a year. So the routes that we had before Brexit under the old

02:40Dublin 2 system will continue. And you've got to remember what happened then. Under Dublin 2, we had a

02:46similar system. We could return to France, all those that arrived here that we felt weren't deemed

02:50to be passing the asylum test. But we received four times as many from France as we sent back.

02:58This is just basically a charter to continue the people gangs, allowing them just to go to official

03:03hubs so it doesn't look bad in the newspapers because we can see them coming across on the boats.

03:09And we're seeing them coming across in record numbers, 18,000 so far this year, up 43% on the

03:18same point last year. What needs to be done, Stephen?

03:23The first and only way that you stop the boats is by ensuring that you have a deterrent system

03:28in place in a country that prevents people from wanting to come here. And then you have a legal system

03:36that restricts individuals being able to appeal all the time. So whatever deal we do with the French,

03:42it should have been one that said we won't accept anyone coming across on the channel. Secondly,

03:47remove ourselves from the European Courts of Human Rights, abolish the Human Rights Act,

03:53and start to enact legislation that rolls back in common law all the established legal principles

03:59that we have in place that allows people like having a beard to be able to stay here because

04:04he will have it cut off in his country. Or my child doesn't like chicken McNuggets in Albania.

04:11Those sort of rules are breaches of the European Courts of Human Rights.

04:14Thirdly, we then internationally start working with countries like the United States,

04:19who want to amend the UN Refugee Convention to ensure that we know exactly what it means.

04:25It's for those genuinely fleeing torture, not those seeking economic benefits of another country.

04:30There are a system in places nationally, internationally that we can do.

04:35It just requires a government with real steel behind them to be able to do this,

04:41not the ones that we've had like weak feathers blowing in the wind.

04:45Okay. Stephen.

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