1/ This comment from Ian Dunt is frankly ludicrous. No-one crossing the Channel is in a state of acute desperation because they are in a safe country already and capable of making an asylum claim.

2/ Someone in a state of desperation would seek refuge and protection in the first safe country they came to. Most of these people are not asylum seekers, but going shopping for the best deal they can find, and have rejected staying in France. Most of them are economic migrants.

3/ The UK is in an enviable position. An accident of geography means we are an island surrounded by safe countries. There is no reason why any genuine asylum seeker would need to reach these shores to achieve safety and protection from persecution.

4/ The UK contributes huge sums to help safe countries look after genuine refugees. Those who are trying to get to the UK are doing so because they have been sold a story of free housing and regular money just for arriving here. Many have paid money to get here.

5/ The UK is under no obligation to accept economic migrants who refuse to follow the rules for wanting to settle here. And most asylum seekers who get this far have ignored multiple opportunities to seek asylum in safe countries they have travelled through.

6/ The only way we will slow and stop the flow of economic migrants to these shores is to show them that anyone we take into custody will be removed from this country. Unless someone has flown here directly from an unsafe country, they have no just basis for their claim.