Sir Andrew Green was interviewed on the Today Programme at 8.35 this morning about the asylum seekers' camp near Calais, together with Donna Covey, the Chief Executive of the Refugee Council.
Sir Andrew said that the reason for people queueing up in Calais must be that Britain was perceived as a "soft touch". The official statistics suggested that this might be the case as anyone reaching Britain and claiming asylum had a nearly 80% chance of staying, often illegally.
He suggested that the government should take three steps:1 Double the resources for removal.
2 Clamp down on employers of illegal labour.They had started to do this.
3 Take on the absurd arguments for an amnesty which could only make a bad situation worse.
You can hear the discussion on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme web site.
