Migrant Crossings Debate

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Department: Home Office

Migrant Crossings

Matt Warman Excerpts
Monday 7th January 2019

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman has been listening to what I have said about the Government’s policy. We will continue to assess each application, but it is a widely accepted principle that those who are fleeing persecution should claim asylum in the first safe country in which they arrive.

Matt Warman Portrait Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)
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Such is the desperation and commitment of some refugees that they are even crossing the North sea and landing in small boats in Lincolnshire, in both East Lindsey and Boston. I pay tribute to the work of Lincolnshire police and the Border Force in dealing with that difficult and largely unpopulated coast, but does the Home Secretary agree that we should look not only at the real hotspots that have arisen very recently, but at the east coast of England?

Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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I very much agree with my hon. Friend. As he will know—no doubt this is one of the reasons why he has rightly raised the issue—there was a landing on the coast of Lincolnshire in, I believe, December. That is being looked into closely, but he is right to say that we should look more widely than just the south-east coast.