Generosity and goodwill is there for those in need

IF there is one quality we can rely on Boris Johnson having in any circumstance it is eloquence in his language in explaining a complex issue clearly.

This was certainly true yesterday when he, in Dover, and the redoubtable Home Secretary Priti Patel, in Rwanda, unveiled the plan to start processing asylum claims in Africa for the illegal immigrants who travel to Britain across the English Channel.

The Prime Minister noted of the British that “our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not”. For too long the British authorities have allowed the asylum system in this country to be abused by the wicked people smugglers who prey on the vulnerable at one end and the Left-wing activist lawyers who prevent attempts to fix the system on the other.

The decision to process asylum claims at a detention centre in Rwanda is sensible on a number of levels. It means those who fail will not have residential rights here and can be returned to their home country more easily. More importantly it will remove the incentive for those profiting from packing people into small boats for the dangerous trip from France.

This evil trade in human trafficking – unwittingly aided by open borders activists, lawyers and politicians in this country – funds organised crime and terrorism, it sees women and children forced into prostitution and it underpins a modern day slavery workforce in illegal sweatshops up and down the UK.

The alternative to this Rwanda plan is to do nothing and allow the asylum system to remain broken, which in turn means this awful trade in human beings continues unchecked. Of course, genuine refugees should be welcomed as we are welcoming Ukrainians and those who fled Hong Kong from the Chinese Communist terror there.

This country has always welcomed those fleeing persecution but we should not allow crime gangs and illegal immigrants to take advantage of our generosity and goodwill.