Migration ‘a threat to standard of life in UK’

AFRICAN migrants ‘marauding’ across Europe are threatening to undermine living standards, the Foreign Secretary warned yesterday.

Philip Hammond said it was not possible for the EU to absorb ‘millions’ more immigrants – and Brussels must change the law to make it easier to send them home.

His intervention came after a UN envoy accused Britain of racism towards the ‘courageous’ migrants trying to cross the Channel from Calais.

François Crepeau, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, compared their attempts to sneak into the UK to westerners taking a ‘vacation in Thailand’.

Last night, Mr Hammond came under fire from Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper for his ‘alarmist and unhelpful’ comments.

The Shadow Home Secretary said: ‘We need practical responses to help refugees, stop people smuggling, and prevent illegal travelling – and European countries need to work together to implement them, not just resort to divisive statements instead.’

The Foreign Secretary urged the EU to do more to break the link between migrants making it into Europe and being allowed to stay for good.

He said: ‘We have got to be able to resolve this problem ultimately by being able to return those who are not entitled to claim asylum back to their countries of origin. That’s our No 1 priority.’

Last month alone almost 50,000 migrants arrived in the EU through Greece, compared to a total of 41,700 in the whole of last year, according to the latest figures from the EU border agency.

Speaking during a visit to Singapore, Mr Hammond said the gap in living standards between Europe and Africa meant there would always be an ‘economic motivation’ for Africans to try to make it to the EU.

He added: ‘As long as the European Union’s laws are the way they are, many of them will only have to set foot in Europe to be pretty confident that they will never be returned to their country of origin. That is not a sustainable situation because Europe can’t protect itself and preserve its standard of living and social structure, if it has to absorb millions of migrants from Africa.’

Mr Hammond said that ensuring migrants could be returned to their country of origin was also the key to resolving the crisis at Calais, where 5,000 people are gathered in the hope of being able to make it across the Channel to Britain.

He told the BBC: ‘It is clear that there is more that can be done to enhance the physical security of the tunnel.

‘But we also have to work with our French colleagues to try to deal with the root cause of the problem. So long as there are large numbers of pretty desperate migrants marauding around the area there will always be a threat to the tunnel’s security.’

His intervention will be seen as a slapdown for Mr Crepeau and the UN, which has a track record of attacking Britain over immigration policy.

Mr Crepeau said: ‘It is remarkable that in most of our countries we have nothing against numerous Germans and French coming in and we dislike profoundly that people with darker skin colours are coming in.

‘So there are elements of racism in this nationalist, populist reaction to migration.

‘It is not an invasion. It is called mobility. It goes with globalisation. That is what we do when we go for vacation in Thailand.’

However, Tory MP Nigel Huddleston said: ‘I actually find the comments deeply offensive: to accuse British people of racism for expressing valid concerns about the scale of the problem in Calais.’

Fellow Tory MP Andrew Percy said Mr Crepeau’s remarks were ‘claptrap from a UN do-gooder’.

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants yesterday stormed a main road and tried to climb on to lorries in front of stunned holidaymakers.

It came as French police called for the British Army to help in Calais.

Bruno Noel, head of the Alliance police union, said his men were ‘doing Britain’s dirty work’ and the situation could soon get out of control.

Comment – Page 14

‘Not a sustainable situation’