The former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has claimed that Britain's record-breaking migrant crisis is at "the same scale" as it was ten years ago.
Speaking to GB News, John Vine argued that the crisis has come "full circle", telling host Martin Daubney that he has "seen this before and now it's happening again".
The number of migrants making the perilous trip across the Channel continues to soar with another 850 illegal migrants doing so in the last 24 hours.
The running total for this year alone under the Labour Government has now reached more than 30,000 people.
John Vine claimed the migrant crisis is at the 'same scale' now as it was 10 years ago
|GB NEWS / PA
Discussing the crisis on GB News, Mr Vine recalled dealing with illegal migration in 2008: "One of the first priorities of any Government in Britain and elsewhere is to secure the country's borders, and I think what people see is the people who are breaching the rules or there's no fair play in this, and it's always been a problem.
"When my post was originally created in 2008 with the Borders Act of 2007, Parliament wanted an independent watchdog to tell them what was going on, and it was created because there was a crisis in immigration at that time."
He added: "There was a massive backlog of asylum cases, there was a real problem with foreign national offenders being released from prisons remaining in the UK, with no attempt by the Home Office or very little attempt to deport them to their countries of origin."
Martin then interjected, arguing: "But the crisis now dwarfs the crisis then?"
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Two children have died crossing the Channel into Britain as 850 illegal migrants crossed in the last 24 hours | PAMr Vine disagreed, explaining: "Well, the crisis obviously is of the same scale, so what I'm able to do is to say, basically, it's full circle. I've seen this before and it's happened again.
"And yes, I think what's happening now is that because the migrants who are travelling in this way are very visible and a large part are being rescued by the RNLI and the Home Office, we know how many there are and we know the scale of the problem."
He added: "Way back in my time when the post was created, a lot of people were coming into the UK, but we didn't know how many. There was no reliable data on how many people were staying in lorries, how many were hanging onto trains, that sort of thing. And of course, we really had no idea of the scale of it, but we do now."
Asked by Martin what the Labour Government needs to do to put a stop to the small boat crossings, Mr Vine expressed optimism for Sir Keir Starmer's exchange deal with France.
Mr Vine told GB News that there will be a 'queue of people complaining' if migrant detention centres are built
|GB NEWS
Mr Vine said: "One of the ideas of the new Vovernment has come up with is the arrangement with France. Now, before we instantly dismiss it, what's happening at the moment isn't working, so we have, for the first time in principle, France agreeing to take people back.
"None have gone back so far, and the problem is, of course, like Rwanda, we're talking about it, but it hasn't actually been implemented. So whether it will be implemented now that the French government is in some difficulty, I have no idea.
"But actually, if it were to be implemented at scale, it might have a deterrent effect. If it's not implemented at scale and it's only penny numbers, then people who are going to give their money to organised crime are going to say, well I'll take the risk."
Pressed by Martin on his verdict on building detention centres for migrants, Mr Vine concluded: "It might work, but of course, remember, just in the same way that people are complaining about hotels being used in their communities for this purpose, I'm sure there'll be a queue of people who'll be complaining about the building of such facilities near where they live as well."