of thousands of individuals who arrive via small boat? to do that, we need bilateral agreements with countries or an agreement with the eu. and there s precious little evidence so far that we have made much progress in hammering out agreements of that kind of course, we do have one policy like that, that s with rwanda, but we haven t sent anyone there yet. critics, too, are questioning whether the government has the capacity to detain large numbers of people prior to their removal from the uk. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, has called the government s plan unworkable and is calling on the government to do more to tackle the criminal gangs who are responsible for ferrying asylum seekers across the channel. but the prime minister believes if he doesn t try to introduce a new law to stop small boats, he could pay a high political price. iain watson, bbc news. our correspondent, lucy williamson sent this from calais.
many minds or deter people from trying to cross the channel. it is just going to be added to the list of risks that they have been through, the list of risks they prefer not to think about, and migrant associations say rather than slow the flow of small boats, it is simply going to criminalise people who are seeking refuge under international law. simonjones is in dover, simon tell us more about these proposals. does anyone there where you are think this new law will actually stop people arriving by small boats, given it does not directly address how to tackle the people smugglers, the people where lucy is in france who are putting people on the small boats to travel to the uk? it is boats to travel to the uk? it is certainly the boats to travel to the uk? it is certainly the british boats to travel to the uk? it 3 certainly the british government s calculation that this will make a difference and has to make a
challenges to its interpretation of how far it can go in pushing international law. there are some practical challenges. 0ne international law. there are some practical challenges. one is the fact that if you have tens of thousands of people crossing the channel on small boats who you are pledging to detain, you have to find somewhere to detain them. if you are going to deport them, you have to find some way of doing that. although the government is planning to buy up some property to do that, remember that the rwanda plan to send asylum seekers to rwanda hasn t happened yet because it has been caught up in the courts. so there are those practicalities, too. but the politics is always key here, isn t it? i was quite struck that both the prime minister and the home secretary have gone for the politics in pieces they have written for the newspapers this morning. the prime minister talking about labour not wanting to solve the smaller boats problem. the home secretary suggesting that labo
british citizenship. the prime minister and home secretary have written in conservative supporting newspapers this morning. in the sun, rishi sunak has said, this new law will send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you ll be swiftly removed. and in the telegraph, suella braverman declared there would be no more sticking plasters or shying away from difficult decisions. we ve pushed the boundaries of international law to solve this crisis. dover s mp says this is part of wider measures and she wants to see more action to stop small boats setting sail. what i m hoping to see from this package of measures is that we see more action taken to stop those boats leaving france in the first place, more is done in terms of managing the english channel between the two countries, and that there s strengthening of the returns. and that s what we re expecting in the bill this week. anyone arriving by an illegal route from today onwards could be subject to the new law. bu