Rishi Sunak admits more action needed to control Channel crossings

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to give an update on his promises to end small boat crossings of the English Channel and address the backlog of asylum cases.

The announcement comes as Mr Sunak is facing growing pressure over the Conservative party's migration promises.

Set to speak in Kent on Monday, he will report on progress achieved six months after the introduction of his Illegal Migration Bill under the “stop the boats” initiative.

The plan aimed to put an end to unauthorised sea crossings into the UK.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick defended the government's approach, saying that the current asylum system, which he claimed was “riddled with abuse”, needed fundamental change.

Despite these measures, Mr Jenrick acknowledged that the backlog of asylum cases, which Mr Sunak had vowed to eradicate this year, had reached a record high of more than 150,000.

The Home Office predicts that detention centres, accommodation costs and removals will require between £3 billion ($3.74 billion) to £6 billion to effectively manage the issue of small boat crossings.

The Conservatives are struggling with the issue of legal migration, which soared to a record high of 606,000 people last year, despite Tory pledges to reduce it.

The UK government is facing challenges in implementing its repatriation agreement with Albania amid a rising asylum backlog. PA

Mr Jenrick conceded that immigration is “far too high today” and that setting targets such as former prime minister David Cameron's 2010 pledge to reduce net migration to below 100,000 may not be “particularly helpful".

During his Kent visit, Mr Sunak is expected to admit that more action is required to control unauthorised crossings.

He will share updates on the number of Channel arrivals, the current asylum case backlog, and efforts to reduce the costly use of hotels for housing migrants.

A recent incident in which 40 asylum seekers refused to enter a London hotel due to overcrowded room conditions raised concern.

Labour's leader of Westminster City Council, Adam Hug, described asking people who have probably experienced significant trauma to share an inappropriately sized room as a failure of “common sense and basic decency".

Mr Jenrick responded to this criticism by stating that single adult males would be asked to share rooms as a measure to decrease hotel dependence, asserting that this was a “fair and reasonable approach".

In addressing the broader system, he said there was a need for “changing fundamentally” how asylum is dealt with in the UK after 13 years of Conservative rule.

Reacting to these statements, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, criticised Mr Jenrick's “untrue” claims, suggesting that most of those crossing the Channel are later proven to be refugees.

Mr Solomon urged the government to focus on “fixing the problems within the UK asylum system", starting with a genuine commitment to tackling the asylum backlog.

On a positive note, ministers have praised a “landmark” agreement with Albania to repatriate failed asylum seekers and foreign offenders.

But Mr Jenrick conceded that only a few hundred Albanians who arrived on small boats have been returned so far.

As of last year, official figures recorded that 45,000 people arrived on small boats.

As of March, there were 172,758 people awaiting an initial decision on asylum applications, representing a 57 per cent increase from the previous year.

Mr Sunak had pledged in December to “abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions” by the end of 2023, a commitment that is now under scrutiny.

THE SIXTH SENSE

Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: 5/5

COMPANY%20PROFILE

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

RESULT

Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')

Most%20polluted%20cities%20in%20the%20Middle%20East

%3Cp%3E1.%20Baghdad%2C%20Iraq%3Cbr%3E2.%20Manama%2C%20Bahrain%3Cbr%3E3.%20Dhahran%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E4.%20Kuwait%20City%2C%20Kuwait%3Cbr%3E5.%20Ras%20Al%20Khaimah%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E6.%20Ash%20Shihaniyah%2C%20Qatar%3Cbr%3E7.%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E8.%20Cairo%2C%20Egypt%3Cbr%3E9.%20Riyadh%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E10.%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3ESource%3A%202022%20World%20Air%20Quality%20Report%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

MOST%20POLLUTED%20COUNTRIES%20IN%20THE%20WORLD

%3Cp%3E1.%20Chad%3Cbr%3E2.%20Iraq%3Cbr%3E3.%20Pakistan%3Cbr%3E4.%20Bahrain%3Cbr%3E5.%20Bangladesh%3Cbr%3E6.%20Burkina%20Faso%3Cbr%3E7.%20Kuwait%3Cbr%3E8.%20India%3Cbr%3E9.%20Egypt%3Cbr%3E10.%20Tajikistan%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cem%3ESource%3A%202022%20World%20Air%20Quality%20Report%3C%2Fem%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history

- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon

- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.

- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater

- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.

- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.

- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.

-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

MATCH INFO

Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')

Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')

Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)

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SRI LANKA SQUAD

Upul Tharanga (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella
Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana
Chamara Kapugedara, Thisara Perera, Seekuge Prasanna
Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera
Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay

What it means to be a conservationist

Who is Enric Sala?

Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.

What is biodiversity?

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.

U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES

UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh

UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith