LAST week the Prime Minister announced an ambitious new plan to stop the illegal and highly dangerous Channel crossings which have quadrupled in the past two years. It is a problem that needs addressing urgently.

The UK of course has a proud tradition of welcoming genuine refugees and I have worked very hard over the past year to assist with visa applications and to resolve passport problems from, mainly women and children, escaping Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The UK has also welcomed Syrians from refugee camps and Hong Kong citizens fleeing the Chinese clampdown. In total around half a million have been welcomed into our country since 2015. But our generosity is being exploited and illegal channel crossings cannot be allowed to continue.

A very large number of those crossing the Channel illegally are not directly fleeing a war-torn country or persecution or an imminent threat to life. 

They have travelled through safe, European countries and the majority have paid people-smugglers huge sums to make this dangerous trip. 

I do not doubt that the majority of those coming here are making this journey in the hope of a better life but crossing the Channel illegally, putting lives at risk (including those of children) and fuelling organised crime cannot be the answer. 

It is also highly unfair to those who follow the rule of law and abide by legal asylum processes resources that could be allocated to meeting their needs are being stretched elsewhere. 

The cost to the taxpayer is huge – we are spending £42 million a week on hotel bills – enough to fund 30,000 more nurses and 30,000 more teachers. 

The asylum claims backlog alone stands at around 140,000 being significantly more than the entire population of Central Devon. Action is required.

The legislation the PM is proposing will make it clear that if you come here illegally you can’t claim asylum, you can’t make spurious human rights claims and you can’t stay. 

We will detain those who come here illegally and then remove them in weeks, either to their own country if it is safe to do so, or to a safe third country like Rwanda. 

And once you are removed, you will be banned – as you are in America and Australia – from re-entering our country.

I hope that the new legislation will act as the strongest possible deterrent. In July 2013, Australia announced that no-one who arrived on its shores illegally would be allowed to settle. In the previous 12 months more than 25,000 people had arrived in Australia by boat. 

The following year this dropped to 157. Stopping people attempting to cross the Channel illegally is a huge challenge. 

But I am confident that we can reduce the journeys significantly, reduce the burden on the tax payer and so spend more time helping genuine refugees. 

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