The Coalition for Global Prosperity have today launched a new report which looks at how UK Aid can help to stop irregular migration to the UK.

The report features a foreword from Conservative Member of Parliament Jane Stevenson MP.

Jane says:

It has never been clearer than it has during this parliament how closely intertwined our domestic and foreign policies are. Whether during the Covid-19 pandemic or the cost of energy crisis precipitated by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we have seen how crises that begin abroad have the potential to dominate politics here in Britain. Irregular migration is another such issue. 

The report uses climate change as a case study to demonstrate the impact of risk multipliers and the importance of UK support in these areas.

The report makes the following conclusions:

• So much spent on accommodating asylum seekers it kneecaps what we can do abroad. The aid budget should be used to invest in poverty alleviation, create better economic opportunities for a generation of young people in search of work, and the UK’s development expertise should continue to support stable and democratic governance across the world. 

• A secure border, controlled immigration levels and an orderly asylum process, is central to maintaining public trust.

• In 2022, the UK spent 29 per cent of its ODA budget on hosting asylum seekers, thus kneecapping British capacity to make a difference abroad.

• Development does help address the very factors of this challenge which border security measures and deterrence policies cannot.