Keir Starmer to chop visa allocations for international locations who don’t signal return agreements for unlawful migrants | EUROtoday

Keir Starmer has signalled a brand new hardline strategy to tackling unlawful immigration by vowing that international locations who don’t comply with “returns agreements” could have their visas restricted.

After the prime minister held talks on the G7 with Canada with French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and German chancellor Friedrich Merz on the continuing disaster, he revealed to journalists that he plans to step up efforts.

The readout from the assembly with President Macron talked about “innovative approaches” to be adopted to cease the small boats.

Speaking to journalists, Sir Keir stated: “Well, on the innovative approaches – yes, we are looking at what further we can do. I think we need to strengthen our existing tools, but then go further and see what else we can do. And that is a piece of work we’re looking at with the French in particular.”

He went on: “We are looking at what we can do on returns agreements. We have done a number of bilateral returns agreements. So the question is, again, whether it is possible to go a bit beyond that. Including looking at this question of visas now and whether we can’t be a bit smarter with the use of our visas in relation to countries that don’t have a returns agreement with us.”

Asked if that meant fewer visas for international locations which didn’t agree returns agreements of unlawful migrants, he responded: “It would be much more sort of transactional, if you like. Now, we’re looking into it, but certainly I think there are areas like that that we should look more closely at.”

Currently international locations with returns agreements with the UK are Albania, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Georgia, Somalia, Serbia and Algeria.

Sir Keir additionally denied that the reference to a deteriorating scenario on the Channel with small boats was an admission of failure.

Recently defence secretary John Healey has hit out on the French over their failure to cease migrants getting on boats regardless of the UK paying £400m a yr to France to attempt to cease the issue.

In current days there have been studies of migrants wading as much as their necks in water to board boats and keep away from the police.

The prime minister conceded: “There’s a critical scenario in relation to the channel crossings. And as I’ve stated on plenty of events, no person ought to be making that crossing.

“It is a serious challenge that requires serious responses to it. We are working much more closely already with our French counterparts, in particular, so the Home Secretary and the interior minister working more closely than any interior minister and Home Secretary have before.

“As we’re working with our German counterparts and Italians.”