Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the open letter of 25 June 2018 from nine British and French voluntary organisations, about the UK–France joint action plan on illegal migration across the Channel, published on 24 January, alleging that the plan ignored international law and asylum seekers' individual rights.

The Government rejects any suggestion that it has ignored international law or the individual rights of asylum seekers. We strongly advocate the principle that international protection should be sought, and is most effective when given, in the first safe country a refugee arrives in.

We also have a duty to secure our border. Close cooperation with partners such as France is designed to deter illegal migration and the organised crime that enables it, while encouraging and supporting effective access to protection in France by those who need it is entirely consistent with that approach. Our partnership with France is part of the Government’s wider whole of route approach to migration, which includes supporting refugees and the countries that host them through aid and development funding and operating refugee resettlement schemes to provide a safe and legal route to the UK for the most vulnerable.