Join EU migration pact to tackle small boats, says Ed Davey
Summary
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey says the UK should join the European Union’s new Migration and Asylum Pact to help stop small boats crossing the Channel. The pact aims to speed up asylum processes, return irregular migrants to their first EU country, and share responsibility for asylum seekers among EU nations.Key Facts
- The EU Migration and Asylum Pact started in June 2024 to improve how asylum seekers are managed.
- The pact speeds up asylum decisions and helps return migrants to the first EU country they entered.
- Sir Ed Davey believes joining the pact would reduce illegal small boat crossings to the UK.
- The UK would have to accept some asylum seekers from the EU if it joined the pact.
- The Liberal Democrats say the cost to the UK would be about £100 million a year, less than current asylum costs.
- Labour says working with EU countries has already helped prevent over 47,000 crossings in two years.
- The pact involves mandatory screening and biometric checks, like fingerprints, stored in an EU database called Eurodac.
- The UK government lost access to the Eurodac database after Brexit but wants to regain it.
- Joining the pact would need agreement from all EU countries and new UK laws.
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