Davey announces plan to join EU pact and end small boat crossings which have soared since Brexit
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Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey says Farage and the Conservatives deceived
the public by claiming their botched Brexit deal would protect our
borders, as over 200,000 people have now crossed the Channel in
small boats, up from zero before the referendum. Davey calls for
the UK to immediately enter the EU's new landmark Migration and
Asylum Pact, granting Britain sweeping new powers to return small
boat arrivals. Joining the pact would end the pull factor
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The Liberal Democrats have today announced plans to end the small boats crisis, calling for the UK to join the EU's landmark new Migration and Asylum Pact, granting Britain sweeping new powers to return migrants and gaining new access to EU-wide biometric data. Since Brexit, over 200,000 people have made the dangerous channel crossing in small boats, up from zero before the referendum. The Liberal Democrat leader has today said Britain must join the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact, which would give the UK new powers to legally return migrants to the first EU country they entered. Joining the new pact would also grant Britain access to the EU's biometric database. Currently, the Home Office has no knowledge of the identity of arrivals or whether they've already been refused asylum by neighbouring countries. Being outside the EU has been described as a major pull factor driving the crisis. Asylum seekers know Britain has no watertight returns agreement, and no access to data to show whose asylum applications have already been denied elsewhere. Authorities have admitted that at least 15' convicted people smugglers have been able to enter and live in the UK because of the failure of checks, including the godfather' of the migrant camps Twana Jamal. Brexit has made it more difficult to carry out checks, as the UK no longer has access to EU-wide databases with crucial background information and criminal history. Davey has said the Conservatives and Farage, who pushed through their botched Brexit deal, deceived the public by claiming Brexit would protect our borders and now are exploiting the mess they created for their own gain. The party says Britain must continue its proud history of welcoming those fleeing persecution, but that cannot be via small boats. Joining the new pact would finally give Britain a humane, orderly and cost-effective asylum system. Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: Farage and the Conservatives should hang their heads in shame for breaking our borders with their bad Brexit deal. But instead of apologising to the British public, they are now exploiting the mess they created for their own gain. We have a plan that would finally end the small boats crisis: a pact with every EU country that will allow us to return people who come over the Channel, taking away the major pull factor that Farage and co created and destroying the business model of the criminal gangs. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Max Wilkinson MP said: Time and time again, Nigel Farage and the architects of the dangerous small boats chaos tell us they have a new plan to end the crisis they created. They would sooner send in the navy at taxpayers' expense and strip British people of hard-won rights by leaving the ECHR than admit they're responsible. We can end small boat crossings and have a humane and cost-effective asylum system by joining the EU's new pact. We should be proud of Britain's history as a place of sanctuary for those fleeing persecution, and that must continue, but it needs to be safe and controlled for everyone - not via small boat crossings. ENDS Notes to Editors The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum contains 10 binding legislative acts that reform how the European Union manages border security, processes asylum claims, and shares responsibility for migrants. The EU has spent a decade working up the legislation and it was fully implemented as of 12 June 2026. It aims to make the system more efficient, stable and prevent secondary movements, where refugees or asylum-seekers move from the country in which they first arrived, to seek protection or for permanent resettlement elsewhere. It includes measures such as mandatory screening process (counties of first entry will now be required to invest significant efforts into screening and registering all irregular arrivals immediately), new fast-track border procedures (applications from nationals of countries with a low likelihood of receiving international protection will be dealt with in an accelerated manner directly at the Union's external borders), and a more extensive Eurodac database for tracking biometric data to crack down on secondary movements. It also includes a new version of the Dublin Agreement called the AMMR, which introduces a new duty on asylum seekers to apply for asylum in the first country they enter. If they fail to cooperate, they lose their entitlements to reception conditions in other member states. The statistic that there were no small boat crossings before the Brexit referendum comes from this paper by Professor Thom Brooks at Durham University. A recent report by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford found that in interviews, migrants in Northern France often cite the departure from Dublin as a reason for wanting to seek asylum in the UK, particularly if they had already been refused protection in the EU. BBC 2026, People smuggler convicted in France found by BBC living in UK and seeking asylum' |