The heart sinks at the news that a baby has died in the Channel, the latest wholly innocent victim of the wicked people-smuggling industry that now flourishes on so many dangerous routes between the Middle East and Europe, between Africa and Europe and in the narrow seas between the UK and France.
These dismal incidents are all too common. Only 15 days ago, a two-year-old child was crushed to death and three others also perished during an attempt to cross the Channel.
But what is the truly civilised response to this misery? It is easy to let emotions get the better of reason, as has happened in the past over such incidents.
But during many years we have learnt that lax migration policies do not prevent or diminish such events. They encourage them.
The more that smugglers and their victims think they can evade our border control, the more boats there will be, and the more drownings – since the gangsters care nothing for the safety of their passengers.
MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: ‘We have to persuade migrants they will not gain by trying to cheat their way into Britain. That was the idea behind Rwanda’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Labour scrapped the Rwanda plan soon after getting into government
Foolish Left-wingers blame these events on the lawful desire of sovereign countries, such as ours, to protect their borders. This view is weak and wrong. From the Left’s own position it is unworkable. It will blow up in their faces if they truly believe that borders are in some way unethical and act accordingly. A country that cannot or will not decide who is allowed into its territory is not really a country at all.
None of the things which the Left regards as essential, especially a welfare state, can function in a world without borders. The NHS, for example, is a national, not an international health service.
Ultimately, people will not pay taxes or obey laws in a country where the benefits of citizenship are freely handed to anyone who can make it on to our beaches in a rubber boat.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will learn that the more you demand in tax, the more people will expect to receive from government, in healthcare, housing, law and order, national security and education.
So what can be done? The Prime Minister was quick to squelch Rishi Sunak’s scheme for sending illegal migrants to Rwanda. He did this even though several other European countries had begun to consider similar measures.
What alternative does Sir Keir offer? He ruminates about crushing the smuggling gangs in the courts. But such measures will only ever catch the small fry. The controllers of this wicked business hide out of our reach in Iraq.
It is true that there has been a creditable effort by France to stop the boats from leaving in the first place, catching the smugglers before they reach the shore and destroying their boats.
Alas, the smugglers do not easily give up. They cram more migrants into bigger boats, and risk crossings in worse weather, one of the reasons for the recent upsurge in drownings.
All experience shows that, if you wish to crush criminal trade, you must deter demand.
We have to persuade migrants they will not gain by trying to cheat their way into Britain. That was the idea behind Rwanda, just as it is the idea behind Italy’s Albania scheme.
In the end, any serious British government will have to return to such a method. Why not do it now?
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