DAILY MAIL COMMENT: PM shows he means business on Rwanda trends now
The story of seven-year-old Sara Alhashimi, crushed to death aboard a migrant boat near Calais last week, is both tragic and deeply distressing.
She perished under the weight of bodies throwing themselves on to the flimsy craft in pitch-darkness, while her parents, sister and brother looked helplessly on.
No-one could fail to be moved by her father Ahmed's grief as he recalled that fateful night.
But emotion aside, the story also reveals much about the laxity of our asylum system and the motivation of those seeking to exploit it. Mr Alhashimi had made numerous asylum claims over 14 years in Europe, first in Belgium, where Sara was born, and later in Sweden and Finland.
There are even rumours that Labour are beginning to fear it could work. This is hugely to Rishi Sunak's credit
Not only would this cut asylum numbers but also break the cross-Channel traffickers' business model and prevent more people suffering Sara's tragic fate. People believed to be migrants disembark from a British Border Force vessel
All were turned down on the grounds that his home city of Basra, in southern Iraq, is relatively stable and he did not have a well-founded fear of persecution. So, he decided to try his luck in Britain.
It's understandable, of course, that he should want to give his family a better life. But asylum is there to protect the helpless and dispossessed, not provide economic opportunities.
For too long, so few claimants have been removed that merely getting here was effectively guaranteed the right to remain. It makes a mockery of the system.
That's why the Rwanda scheme is so important. Those claiming refugee status will be sent abroad for assessment, and even if successful will not have the right to return to the UK.
Not only would this cut asylum numbers but
