Minister rejects Trump's call for military to tackle illegal migration in UK

According to a cabinet minister, the UK military is more concerned about protecting the country than stopping asylum seekers from crossing the Channel. During his state visit this week, US President Donald Trump suggested that military involvement could be USed to combat illegal immigration to the United Kingdom. However, Trade Secretary Peter Kyle has rebuffed the call, telling BBC Breakfast that the UK Border Force has specific responsibility for policing UK borders. Hundreds of migrants attempted to cross the Channel earlier today as the government's one in, one out deal with France took place.

As the smugglers make the most of a break in the channel's windy weather, six boats are believed to have started from northern France. Due to choppy seas, there had been no crossings for a week before then. After losing a High Court bid to halt his removal, an Eritrean man became the second migrant to be deported under the government's agreement with France on Friday morning. To win the lawsuit, the Home Office tightened the rules around human trafficking allegations.

However, Trump believed that the military force was a better deterrent than the Labour government's diplomatic policy of diplomatic talks, which culminated in return of returns and tightening up court guidance. Trump suggested that such force was needed as illegal migration destroys countries from within, during a press conference at the prime minister's country residence Chequers.

You have people coming in and I told the prime minister that I will stop it,

he said, and it doesn't matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what method you use. Well, what he said is the military are USed, Kyle says of the US president's remarks, but the UK Border Force has been established and expanded and improved under this administration, and has new powers under new leadership.

The navy does have a working relationship with the UK Border Force, and if necessary, the navy can be called on to assist the navy, so we do have the operational link that we need between our military and keeping our borders safe and secure.

But what we really need at the moment is our military concentrated on all of the world's most critical issues directly affecting our national defense.

'Different geography'

Trump has issued a series of executive orders enforcing a broad ban on asylum for migrants crossing the southern border, and he has sent in troops to help border security efforts. Since Trump took office, the arrests of migrants by the US Border Patrol have decreased. Both the Conservatives and the Reform UK are calling for tougher action on migration, with Reform claiming that anyone who enters the UK on small boats will be refused asylum. Both sides have suggested using military force, but Nigel Farage has said that a Reform government would rew small boats back to France

as the only last resort. The Ministry of Defencerecently announced that military assets had been purchased

for defense purposesand werenot optimized

to be used in combating illicit migration. General Sir Richard Barrons, a former head of the UK Joint Forces Command, warned that the involvement of the British military in migration flows would be limited due to the

very different geographyinvolved.I don't think France is going to be very enthusiastic about British troops on French beaches unless they were very closely coordinated,he said to BBC Radio 4.The military was not likely to add much to existing efforts to spot boats using commercial drones, according to him.

When migrants arrive in the United Kingdom, the Home Office has a system for gathering them up and the military will provide manpower, but they are not going to make the problem any different.

Shannon Mahmood, the new Home Secretary, has promised to combat vexatious, last-minute allegations, as Kyle described her as straining at the bit to ensure the pilot one-in-one-out scheme for migrant return was a success.

We're making sure we get as many people as possible so they don't have the right to be here returned as quickly as possible,

he said, adding that there are a lot of cases going through court. When asked if there was any target figure for the number of returns, Kyle said,

Our aim is to make sure that everyone who comes to our shore and doesn't have the right to remain is excluded from the country.

We want to get a complete handle on the system, but we want to make sure we see a running machine that does so well, efficiently, and quickly that people don't come here in the first place," says the deterrent. Around 100 men who arrived in the United Kingdom by a small boat are now in immigration removal centers near Heathrow, and may be sent to France under the scheme. More deportation flights are scheduled into next week, according to the Home Office, and a government appeal has been launched, aimed at limiting the time migrants must provide evidence to challenge their removal. Since the scheme went into operation at the start of August, more than 5,500 migrants have arrived in the UK, but the government is hoping that continuing removal flights would be a deterrent. Subscribe to our Politics Essential newsletter to get top political analysis, gain insight from around the UK, and stay up to date with the most important events. Every week, it will be delivered straight to your inbox.