Lib Dem leader calls for UK to join EU Migration Pact to crush Channel gangs

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for the United Kingdom to join the European Union's Migration and Asylum Pact as the most effective way to dismantle the criminal networks organising small boat crossings of the English Channel. Davey argued that only a coordinated Europe-wide approach to migration enforcement and asylum processing could deprive people-smuggling gangs of their business model. He said the current UK approach, which relies on bilateral deals and domestic enforcement, has failed to stem the flow of dangerous Channel crossings. The Lib Dems would seek membership of the pact as part of a broader reset of UK-EU relations, Davey said. The proposal was immediately rejected by the government, which said there was no case for binding the UK to EU asylum rules after Brexit. Critics from the right argued the EU pact itself was insufficiently robust. The Channel crossings issue has been one of the most politically contentious topics in British politics for the past several years, with tens of thousands of people crossing annually in small boats operated by criminal gangs.