Cameron denies Brexit to blame for asylum fallout with France
David Cameron has denied suggesting Brexit is to blame for an asylum-returns deal with France being off the table.
The Foreign Secretary said the scrapping of the Dublin Regulation no longer made it possible. That law allowed member states to send asylum seekers to other EU countries but is being replaced by a different system. It comes after Lord Cameron said that a cross-channel returns agreement was not possible because of “the situation we’re in, because of the attitudes of others and all the rest of it”.
The remarks were widely seen as an admission that he believes the UK’S departure from the bloc is the reason why a deal cannot be struck with France. But he said: “No, it’s not that. The situation we’re in is that the Dublin Convention no longer exists whether you’re in the EU or out of the EU. The problem is it’s not possible to have that returns deal with France, that's why we have looked at innovative solutions.”
Lord Cameron, who called the Brexit referendum before fronting the Remain campaign, told
ITV’S Peston show that he would “love” for the UK to still be able to return migrants to France.
The remarks were seen as at apparent odds with the Government line that a deal with a EU country is not possible because the bloc would insist Britain taking a quota of migrants as part of the agreement.
He defended the controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda as “the right one” to the problem of small boat crossings in the Channel. Defending the Safety of Rwanda legislation earlier this week, Andrew Mitchlord ell MP said statistics suggest Kigali is “arguably safer than London” and the objections of some peers to the plan “border on racism”.
Asked whether he shared the views of Me Mitchell. the Deputy foreign secretary, who appears on behalf of the Foreign Office in the Commons chamber, Lord Cameron said: “We always speak with one voice.”
Asked whether he believes Kigali is safer than London, the Foreign Secretary said: “I'm always driven by the data.”