MANCHESTER, England — Migrants entering the U.K. illegally should be escorted into international waters and forced to return to France, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said.
Speaking during an interview with Sascha O’Sullivan at the POLITICO Pub at Conservative Party conference on Monday, Abbott suggested the U.K. could learn a thing or two from Australia, which had managed to get illegal immigration “under control.”
“When I came in, we reopened offshore detention, we put back in place temporary protection visas and we put in place a policy to turn boats around through Operation Sovereign Borders,” said Abbot, who was prime minister of Australia between 2013 and 2015.
Instead of collecting migrants from the water and taking them back to Australia, Abbott said they were kept on board the mother ship with “total radio silence.”
“Then, on an appropriate night we put them on an unsinkable orange life raft with just enough fuel and say: ‘Back you go.’”
The U.K., he argued, should adopt a similar approach.
“[There is] no reason why these people can’t be taken into international waters,” he said. “The English Channel is narrow between Dover and Calais — but it’s wide once you get down towards Normandy.”
He explained: “When they are in British waters … we should take them onto a mothership into international waters down the Channel. Then, on a suitable night, they can be back on the shores of France.”
His comments follow the announcement of Conservative plans to deploy a new “removals force” with powers to detain and remove 750,000 illegal immigrants from the U.K. within five years.
Abbott expressed support for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who he said was “incredibly well-placed to argue for the right policies on immigration and national unity.”
“On very important topics like the energy insanity, like the border madness, I think the Tory party under Kemi has now got a strong position. And I would expect that position to be reiterated day in day out on the doorsteps of the country, in the social media of the country.
“That message, the clear message of Britain will get out of the European Convention on Human rights. Britain will take much more active measures to control its borders at sea and on land.”