LONDON,
June 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - British Prime Minister
Tony Blair came under attack from opposition Conservative leader Iain
Duncan Smith Monday for being "isolated" at an EU summit in
Spain tackling illegal immigration.
Blair
acknowledged in parliament that he would have liked to "go
further" Saturday, June 22, 2002, on the vexed issue of asylum
and immigration at the Seville summit, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
said.
Since
the meeting ended, Blair's government has faced criticism by
opposition politicians and press that it was forced to tone down plans
for sanctions on states which fail to curb the problem of illegal
migrants.
Blair
insisted that "substantial progress" had been made on the
issue. However, Duncan Smith claimed that Blair had once again
"lost the argument and been left behind".
"You've
been isolated on your own asylum proposals, bounced into accepting EU
border patrols and failed again to get Common Agricultural Policy
reform on the agenda," Duncan Smith told the Prime Minister in
heated exchanges in parliament, AFP reported.
Britain's
aim, replied Blair, was not to prevent legal migration but to stop
illegal immigration that "debases the system and harms the
interests of the legal immigrant".
He
added: "A majority of states, including Britain, wanted to go
further (at the summit) in hardening the language" on returning
illegal migrants to their country of origin.
"A
minority were concerned that this looked as if we were prepared to
harm our development objectives," Blair said.
Britain
is a prime destination for illegal immigrants, some paying thousands
of dollars to smugglers to sneak them into the country. Others make
false claims for refugee status, or simply overstay their visas.
Concern
over illegal immigration to Britain hit a peak in June 2000 when 58
Chinese nationals were found dead from suffocation inside a Dutch
truck filled with tomatoes at the English Channel port of Dover.
British
Minister for Europe Peter Hain insisted Sunday, June 23, 2002, that
Britain was not forced at an EU summit in Spain to tone down plans for
economic sanctions on states which fail to tackle the problem of
illegal migrants, AFP reported.
The
measures agreed upon by the European leaders at the Seville meeting
Saturday to turn back illegal immigrants and tighten the bloc's porous
borders, but stopped short of deciding sanctions against the poor
countries from which they come, were seen by the British press as a
snub to Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to counter illegal
immigration.
