Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Royal Navy's decision to instruct migrants rescued from the Mediterranean to disembark from the ships inside rather than outside the European Union is consistent with their policy of discouraging people trafficking.

Under international law the UK has a duty not to return people who are rescued at sea to countries where they would be at risk of serious harm. That is why people rescued at sea are taken to Italy as this is considered the nearest safe country.

However, we need to break the link between getting on a boat and automatically achieving residence in Europe. The UK is playing a leading role in pushing for action through the EU and the UN to tackle the causes of illegal immigration to discourage people from making the perilous journey in the first place. The UK is also pursuing and disrupting the organised crime groups profiting from the people smuggling trade, including through the creation of an Organised Immigration Crime Task Force.

If migrants do reach the EU they need to be stopped, processed and screened when they arrive to control their movement and to distinguish between genuine refugees and economic migrants. The UK fully supports the EU’s ‘hotspots’ initiative which will help give effect to this.