This month, I’ve been backing the Conservative Government’s Illegal Migration Bill. 

The law will deter illegal entry into the UK, save lives by breaking the people smugglers’ business model and remove people with no right to remain in the country. It will also set an annual cap on those admitted to the UK for resettlement.

This law is needed. The overwhelming majority of Britons back it. Yet it is being opposed by Labour as well as the Lib Dems, other fringe parties and left-wing lawyers.

It’s important to know the facts when dealing with this sensitive issue, as much of the information put out by our opponents is false.

Isle of Wight County Press: Alleged migrants arrive on a Kent beach.Alleged migrants arrive on a Kent beach. (Image: Newsquest)

Fact: since 2015, the UK has taken in 480,000 refugees. That’s not people who settle here for work, that’s not the number of illegal refuges. That’s just legal refugees. It’s more than twice the population of the city of Portsmouth. To say we don’t take in people or play our fair share is false.

How many hundreds of thousands, or millions, more do our opponents want us to take?

Fact: there are currently nine safe and legal routes for refugees to come to this country; two for Afghanistan, two for Ukraine, one for Hong Kong. There are four general safe and legal routes. When our opponents claim there are no safe and legal routes, they are not telling the truth.

Fact: our asylum system is exploited by people falsely claiming to be victims of modern slavery. Of the largest single group, young Albanian men, 90 per cent on arrival claim to be the victim of trafficking. In reality, almost none are. Albania is a safe, although poor, country. 

The abuse of our modern slavery laws prevents us from focusing on women trafficked for sexual exploitation. 

This proposed new law is part of a series of measures. We have doubled funding for the National Crime Agency (NCA) to tackle people smuggling.

We have signed a deal with the Albanian Government to return illegal arrivals coming from that nation. We’ve also signed similar deals with Georgia, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Serbia and Rwanda, as well as a multi-year agreement with France, to increase the number of patrols on beaches across the Channel.

International migration is a major issue. Tens of millions of people are on the move throughout the world. We need to be sensitive and understanding. But we also need to protect our borders.