Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with international partners to help tackle irregular migration to the UK.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are taking on the serious, hard work needed to tackle the global problem of irregular migration. We are getting ready to return the first set of small boat arrivals under our groundbreaking returns deal with France. We have signed a landmark agreement with Iraq to tackle illegal migration at source, and we have introduced the world’s first sanctions regime to target the people smuggling gangs and dismantle their funding and networks. Since coming to office, we’ve removed over 35,000 people with no right to be here, up 13 per cent year on year.