Research on small boats and immigration by Durham's Professor Thom Brooks discussed in Parliament
On 28 March 2023, the House of Commons debated amendments to the government's Illegal Migration Bill. A recurring criticism is the government has failed to secure sufficient returns agreements in order to make their strategy effective, especially an agreement with the European Union. During the debate, David Simmonds MP (Conservative) noted this issue and discussed the work of Durham Law School's Professor Thom Brooks.
Simmonds said in Parliament that Professor Brooks "did a very detailed study that highlighted that one of the biggest pull factors for those waiting to cross to the United Kingdom was the absence of a returns agreements with France or with the European Union."
Brooks's report Sea Change on Border Control is the 20th most downloaded paper on immigration, refugee and citizenship law on the Social Science Research Network out of 8,582 papers and it was launched only last month. A video about the report has been viewed over 1 million times.
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