The former director general of the UK’s Border Force said that illegal immigrants need to be deported swiftly as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to scrap the Rwanda Plan.
The decision to scrap the Rwanda Plan was criticised by Conservative Party members.
Tony Smith, who led the UK’s border force operation until 2013 after starting his career in the Home Office in the 1970s, told an immigration debate at the party’s conference in Birmingham.
He thought the plan by former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government to deport asylum seekers to the east African country was “imperfect, but a bold attempt to break the smuggling business model”.
Smith was introduced as a member from Croydon.
“When I was an immigration officer back in the day, and I’m talking about the 70s and 80s, if anybody came up to my desk without a passport.
“I refused them entry, and sent them straight back on the first plane.
“I moved into immigration enforcement in London, we found a lot of illegal immigrants. Same thing, if they had no passport, couldn’t verify their status, I would arrest them, detain them and remove them.”
Smith was awarded a CBE in 2013 for his work on the London Olympics a year earlier.
He told the debate: “for our national security, and the safety of our children and our grandchildren, we must get back to the future.
“Undocumented migrants must know that they will be caught, detained and removed swiftly from the territory, just as I did back in the day.”
Shadow immigration minister Paul Holmes said: “we all know that the UK is a fair and tolerant country, and legal immigration has its place.
“We have provided safety to people fleeing conflict and persecution in Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan.
“We have welcomed doctors and nurses from around the world into our NHS, and we gladly accepted those who offer their skills and experience to contribute to our economy and our communities.”
He later added that the election of Sir Keir Starmer and Labour has granted the wishes of criminal gangs.
The steps they have taken since (taking) office shows why labour has never been the party of border security.
They have no plan, and they don’t even have or haven’t shown any interest in having a plan.” (dpa/NAN)
