If Spain gets tough & sends back illegal migrants, then why can’t UK? We need to STOP pussyfooting around & do the same

HOW many times have government ministers told us that, no, we can’t possibly return illegal migrants to France? It is against our international legal obligations, apparently, and would breach the migrants’ human rights — even though it is plain they have arrived via a safe country. Spanish forces remove a migrant who crossed the border into Ceuta Credit: Getty Migrants try to make their way past Spanish police officers Credit: Reuters How come, then, Spain has just managed to repatriate the vast majority of the 60,000 migrants who last week rushed the border between Morocco and Spain’s North African outpost, Ceuta? True, the mass breach of border security doesn’t give much credit to the Spanish authorities. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! But they quickly put their failures right. The migrants were simply put on buses and driven back across the border. It is all the more remarkable given that Spain has a left-wing government, which has championed high levels of migration. More than a million illegal migrants have taken advantage of a recent amnesty. Some of them are reported to have been smuggled out of Britain in lorries, reversing the usual flow. Batting away criticism of his soft migration policies, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said earlier this year: “Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of national development, while hatred and xenophobia have been the greatest destroyers.” Yet 60,000 arrivals in two days proved to be too much even for him. Most read in The Sun Never mind what sob stories they had prepared for interviews with migration officials, the illegals were back on Moroccan soil before they could say “Buenos dias”. When asked why Britain can’t just do the same, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood tried to tell us that it was all very different because Ceuta was “unique” and it was a land border, so not comparable with the Channel. But why should that make a difference? We have plenty of ferries and trains passing between Britain and France. I am sure they have some spare seats. If judges’ interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights says we can’t do it, then change the law and make it plain that the defence of our borders comes first, above the rights of illegal migrants. And no, don’t try the line, “but they’re all desperate”, on me. Unless you are fleeing from Emmanuel Macron’s government (which, in spite of its inadequacies, cannot be accused of murdering dissidents) then you have no business crossing the Channel to claim asylum here. International agreements on asylum and refugees make it clear that if you are fleeing for your life then you claim asylum in the first safe country you reach. You don’t shop around for another country where you fancy settling down instead. Do that and you become an economic migrant. Britain has no moral duty to take you in at all. Shabana Mahmood said Ceuta was ‘unique’ and it was a land border, so not comparable with the Channel Credit: EPA Left-wing Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said: ‘Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of national development’ Credit: AFP With Spain now finally taking a tough line on illegal migration, Britain faces becoming even more exposed as a soft touch. We can’t even seem to get France to observe its side of the “one in, one out” deal negotiated by Keir Starmer. In April the Government agreed to pay France yet another £660 million for its border force to stop the people traffickers. Yet as the Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp discovered last week when he spoke to French border guards on a beach near Paris, they have been instructed to stand aside and let the boats leave. The only sign of action seemed to be from a French naval vessel which fired live rounds in the vicinity of a boat that Philp was travelling in — all part of a pre-planned military exercise, according to the French. Yes, I am sure. Of course we should help genuine refugees. We should contribute generously to international efforts in Syria, Libya and so on. Migrants are rescued from the water after attempting to cross the English Channel Credit: Getty Spanish Civil Guard members keep a watch as migrants sit on the ground in Ceuta Credit: Reuters But the place to help refugees is as close as possible to the places they are fleeing from, as most of them don’t have the resources to make it very far. More than seven million of the 13million Syrians displaced in the civil war never made it beyond the boundaries of their own country. We simply cannot offer a home to every migrant who fancies living here. As last week’s events in Ceuta show, the well of migrants seeking a new life in Europe is, in practical terms, bottomless. Relax border controls even for a moment and there are tens of thousands who will take advantage. They would quickly overwhelm our welfare systems and public services. Sanchez and his government were foolish to let down their guard. The amnesty was almost certainly a big factor in last week’s events. But our own government is nearly as complacent. We keep being told there is nothing to worry about because small boat crossings are down by 45 per cent in a year. But then 2025 was exceptionally bad. The 15,000 who have arrived in 2026 to date is at much the same level as 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Government has made no progress relative to the baseline of when it took office. The rapid return of the Ceuta migrants, however, should mark a sharp turn in policy. Now Spain has set the precedent of bussing illegal migrants back across the border, we should stop pussyfooting around and do the same. Comment now