‘It worked for us’: Alexander Downer urges UK to take Australia’s zero-tolerance approach to boats

Some people think it’s inhumane blocking refugees and asylum seekers but it’s not, according to the former foreign minister. See why.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has called on the UK to follow his hard line policy on banning illegal people smugglers from entering Australia, saying: “It worked for us, Britain should do the same.”

As British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak prepares to put a stop to dangerous illegal immigration with a zero-tolerance policy, the former Australian High Commissioner to the UK insisted dismantling the hugely lucrative business model used by smuggling gangs is the only solution.

“Some people think it’s inhumane blocking refugees and asylum seekers but it’s not – these small boat journeys are dangerous and migrants die,” Mr Downer told News Corp.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has urged Britain to follow Australia’s policy on boat people. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“They should not be allowed to embark across the English Channel – they’re not from Afghanistan and Syria, they’re mostly from France.

“Organised criminals will resist but destroying their business model worked for us in Australia and Britain should do the same.

“We stopped Indonesian migrants from entering Australia, a policy drawn up in 2001 when I was foreign Minister, and it worked. We took them to Nauru and Papua New Guinea to process their paperwork. You cannot allow illegal immigration to be masterminded by these gangs.

“No person who enters the UK unlawfully on a small boat from a safe state should ever be permitted to settle in the UK – there is no middle ground, you must stick to the immigration policy, otherwise it doesn’t work.

“The Australian policy can’t fail to work in the UK, although its business model is looking to deporting migrants to Rwanda.”

British Immigration Enforcement officers escort migrants on the shore at Dungeness on the southeast coast of England. Picture: AFP

With more than 45,000 migrants making the illegal journey across the Channel from Europe in 2022 alone, Mr Downer co-wrote the Policy Exchange think-tank last month, titled “How to legislate about small boats”, aimed at dissecting illegal immigration in Britain.

He said the think tank policy paper argues illegal migration damages education systems, puts a strain on housing, the economy and worsens crime.

The British Home Office is considering tough new measures to be unveiled to ensure that anyone caught trying to enter Britain by a dangerous “irregular route”, such as a Channel crossing in a small boat, would face a lifetime ban from the country and deportation.

Australia has long had a tough border security policy. Refugees and migrants trying to reach the continent by boat are intercepted and have been interned in offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island which closed in 2017 – and Nauru in the South Pacific. Even if they gain refugee status, the government doesn’t allow them to settle in Australia.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Picture: Getty Images

Australia is the only country in the world to enforce a policy of mandatory detention and offshore processing for all asylum seekers who arrive without a valid visa, and is specifically targeted at those who manage to reach Australian territorial waters by boat.

Mr Sunak is poised to clash with advocates of European Union laws over new British migration legislation that he claims will “take back ­control of our borders, once and for all”.

The illegal migration bill will include a “duty” on the home secretary to remove nearly all migrants who arrive in Britain without permission, overriding their right to claim asylum. Home secretary Suella Braverman says the bill would push “the boundaries of international law”.

Some Tory MPs have said they would oppose any measure that clashed with Britain’s obligations under international law, including the European Convention of Human Rights. Under the new law, only the under-18s and the sick arriving in small boats would be allowed to apply for asylum.

Originally published as ‘It worked for us’: Alexander Downer urges UK to take Australia’s zero-tolerance approach to boats