Refugee crisis: Theresa May tells UN that Britain has a right to protect its borders

Theresa May calls for new approach to refugee crisis - photo credit: PA

Theresa May will tell today the United Nations General Assembly that the UK has a “right” to protect its borders, while arguing states need to better distinguish the difference between refugees and economic migrants.

Speaking at the UN, the Prime Minister will claim that hundreds of thousands of economic migrants are posing as refugees, paying criminal gangs to smuggle them to countries where they can claim asylum.

She is expected to urge states to stop “treating the symptoms” of the ongoing refugee crisis, while calling for a change of policy to force refugees to claim asylum in the “first safe country” they reach, in a bid to stop the people trafficking trade in “onward movement".

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She will say: “Across the world today, we are seeing unprecedented levels of population movement and we need to work together to find a better response, which focuses our humanitarian efforts on those refugees in desperate need of protection and maintains public confidence in the economic benefits of legal and controlled migration.”

“This is an urgent matter – more people are displaced than at any point in modern history and it is vital that we provide ongoing support for those people most in need of protection.

“But we cannot simply focus on treating the symptoms of this crisis, we need to address its root causes too. While we must continue our efforts to end conflict, stop persecution and the abuse of human rights, I believe we also need a new, more effective global approach to manage migration.

“This should be based around three principles which will better serve the interests of migrants, who are exposed to danger; the interests of the countries they are leaving, travelling through or seeking to reach; and, most importantly, the interests of refugees, for whom we all share a responsibility to help.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, May will this week push for a “better distinction between refugees and economic migrants” in a bid to prevent people putting their lives “in the hands of criminal gangs”.