IMMIGRATION

'But the [immigration] system cannot work without another, vital aspect of the country's immigration policy: the rigorous policing of its borders.
Last year, the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a dramatic intervention in the debate over Europe's migration crisis, calling it a 'terrible, terrible tragedy'. He spoke out as more than 1,000 migrants drowned in one weekend trying to cross the Mediterranean. He warned Europe's leaders that only a zero-tolerance policy towards people-traffickers would work …
Australia's approach is certainly tough. So tough that migrants seeking asylum have been rejected while still on Australian Navy ships after their boats were intercepted. In one case, 46 Vietnamese asylum-seekers were refused entry and sent back before they got anywhere near the Australian coast. And 41 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers intercepted on a vessel heading for Australia were assessed on board via video link. They failed, and were handed over to authorities in Sri Lanka in a sea transfer off that country's coast.
Human rights groups and many on the Left deeply object to the policy, arguing that it only worsens the plight of refugees. But whatever its moral rights or wrongs, there is no denying it has saved lives. Abbott's Labour predecessor, Kevin Rudd, operated an open-door immigration policy, and tens of thousands of illegal immigrants set sail for the country from Indonesia. By 2012, the number of illegal migrants reaching Australia had soared. Most came from the Middle East; 51,000 asylum-seekers and 8,400 children arrived in the six years under the Labour government. Many did not make it: 1,200 people drowned as their overcrowded, rickety boats capsized in rough seas, just as they have in the Mediterranean.
But in 2013, when Abbott became Prime Minister, everything changed. He introduced a zero-tolerance policy. Called Operation Sovereign Borders, it was run by the Australian Defence Force under the command of a three-star general, and was designed to turn migrant boats back before they reached Australian waters. He made £200million available to other countries in the region to persuade them to cooperate …
The key principle was to keep traffickers' boats away from Australia's coast and deter migrants from trying to reach the country. The Australian Navy set up what became known as a 'ring of steel' – a force of warships to intercept boats carrying migrants, forcing them to turn back. In some cases, even towing them away.
Sometimes, they transferred migrants to 90-seat, lifeboat style 'survival capsules', which were sent back to Indonesia under armed escort. Any migrant who slipped through the net and made it to Australia was detained at once, rather than being allowed to live in the community, while their asylum application was processed – as happens in Britain, Italy and Greece.
The failed migrant was then taken to places such as Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, Nauru in the Pacific, or Manus Island in remote Papua New Guinea, where the Australian government rented land for detention centres. The migrants were housed here while their applications were considered.
These centres have been criticized by Australia's Left-wing media and humanitarian organisations for being dirty and overcrowded. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has accused Australia of subjecting asylum-seekers to 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment'.
However, there's no doubt the policy has stemmed the flood. Only three boats have arrived this year and 12 illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka have been sent back. But most important of all, since Operation Sovereign Borders began, there have been no reported deaths at sea …
Word has spread that making it to Australia is no guarantee of being able to settle there. Instead, the prospect of being put in a detention centre on a far-off island has deterred would-be asylum-seekers from paying people-smugglers for the perilous voyage. The people-smugglers, too, have realised that, as far as Australia is concerned, the game is up.'

Roger Maynard, writing recently in the Daily Mail

Instead of adopting a zero-tolerance policy like the Australians, Britain has actually deployed the Royal Navy to the Mediterranean to pick up those immigrants in rickety boats and brought them to Europe, from where they continue their migration, in many cases towards Britain. The people-smugglers, including ISIS, know this and have exploited the situation.

The result is that Britain is less secure. The boats used by the immigrants are overcrowded and flimsy; on occasion the boats sink and lives are lost.

Yet those grandstanding their 'compassion' still demand that even more immigrants are let in. Just what sort of people are these? They are so consumed by a contempt for British interests and puffed up with their own self-righteousness, that they pursue a policy that they know will needlessly cost lives of those about whom they claim to be concerned.

Britain should adopt the same zero-tolerance approach as that of the Australians.