A former MEP has ridiculed claims that signing up to the EU’s Dublin convention would be an effective deterrent for illegal migration.
Steven Woolfe, Director of the Centre for Migration and Economic Prosperity, revealed only 216 out of 4000 migrants the UK wanted to deport, were returned in 2016 under agreement.
Speaking on GB News Steven Woolfe said: “I knew Michel Barnier quite well. I met him in his office during the negotiations and I used to speak with him for about 15 minutes, once a month for over a year after the referendum occurred, in Strasbourg.
“What he says is the position that he's always held in respect to Brexit. And the way that we negotiated with the EU and the UK is that there is no way that we could get into the single market and the Customs Union without actually opening the doors to freedom of movement.
“The EU has always been relatively smart. They like to push things slowly over a period of time and I believe that that's exactly what the Labour Party will do too. They want to get closer to each other and what that actually means is actually being embedded by the rules and control of the EU Commission's regulations and laws.
“And [Labour] want to do chemicals, fishing, military, also in relation to immigration. All these rules will be rules set by the EU and we will have to agree to them if you want to get the terms of economic trade that Rachel Reeves wants.
“Let me ask how many people under the Dublin convention in 2016 did Britain ask to be returned and how many were returned? I can give you the answers now if you like because it failed then it will fail now. This is nonsense.
“We basically sent back 216 people in 2016 and we requested returns of 4000. The idea that going back to some sort of returns policy with the EU will be some sort of golden egg to solving this issue is pie in the sky. It's fantasy politics.
“And it's really quite sad that people are actually considering this as a particular option, because it's doomed to failure."
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