France must take back Channel migrants as soon as their dinghies are intercepted to stop the boats, a former immigration minister has said.
Mike Tapp, the Labour MP for Dover, said the immediate return of migrants to France could break the people smugglers’ business model within a month.
“You are not going to pay £5,000, £6,000, £7,000 or £8,000 to be returned immediately,” he said.
He said France would benefit because it would lead to the disbanding of the migrant camps around Calais, and remove “pull factors” which encourage asylum seekers to use France as a stepping stone to the UK.
His proposal goes further than the one-in, one-out scheme agreed with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, last year, under which Britain takes legitimate asylum seekers from France in return for France taking an equal number of returned Channel migrants. Each has so far taken more than 1,000.
“It’s time for Emmanuel Macron to go a bit further working with us to solve our problem. The one in, one out scheme is good but it doesn’t go far enough,” Mr Tapp told The Telegraph.
“There is no doubt in my mind that an agreement with France to intercept and return the migrants straight back to ports like Calais or Dunkirk would work.
“It breaks the business model of the people smugglers but it also helps some of the problems that the French are encountering with the encampments around Calais because you would not have migrants looking to travel there. It would deter many from entering France to travel up to cross to Dover.”
The immediate return of migrants to France has long been advocated by former senior Border Force officials and Tory MPs, but French political leaders have resisted because of voter resistance to taking back migrants who have left the country.
There have also been practical objections because of fears it could lead to violence by migrants against Border Force staff or against the French officers seeking to take them back.
Mr Tapp said any agreement would have to determine who was to intercept the boats and how migrants would be returned. “Under an immediate-returns agreement, reaching a British rescue vessel would no longer mean being taken to Dover,” he said.
“Once safely taken aboard, they would be returned to France. If people refused rescue and tried to continue, the authorities would monitor the boat and intervene where necessary to protect life.”
He acknowledged that Britain would have to pay the French to accept back migrants and process their asylum claims, but suggested it would probably be a short-term investment that would reduce the cost of Border Force rescue operations.
Britain has committed up to £662m in the next three years to pay for a 40 per cent increase in French officers dedicated to preventing migrants reaching Britain by boat, taking the number to more than 1,000.
“The reality for the French would be that they would not have the encampments in France and we would not have people crossing,” said Mr Tapp.
Reform last week announced a memorandum of understanding with Jordan Bardella, the French right wing leader, for any government led by his party to accept the return of illegal migrants. Reform has also pledged to deploy the Navy to intercept boats and take them back to France.
The Tories have pledged to ban unauthorised migrants from entering the UK and to remove illegal migrants within a week of their arrival, possibly using Rwanda-style third-country deportations. Both parties have committed to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.