An immigration lawyer has warned Rishi Sunak he must do one thing to tackle spiralling illegal migration to the UK.
The Prime Minister has continually pledged to "stop the boats" during his time as leader but has so far failed to get his landmark Rwanda policy up and running.
In January, Sunak delivered his five promises in a press conference to the nation, promising to cut NHS waiting lists, grow the economy, halve inflation, cut national debt and stop the boats.
However, the latest figures for net migration stood at 745,000, and illegal migrant crossings have seen more than 20,000 cross the Channel onto UK shores this year.
One of Rishi Sunak's five pledges as Prime Minister is to 'stop the boats' of illegal migrants coming to Britain
PA
The Prime Minister's latest attempt to tackle illegal migration has been with The Safety of Rwanda Bill, which won 313 votes to 269 in its second reading, securing a 44 majority.
37 Tory MPs abstained on the vote, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick.
In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Sunak said of the vote result: "The British people should decide who gets to come to this country – not criminal gangs or foreign courts.
"That’s what this Bill delivers. We will now work to make it law so that we can get flights going to Rwanda and stop the boats."
Speaking to GB News, Immigration Lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal warned Rishi Sunak of the 'key factor' driving illegal migration.
Bhangal said: "A lot of people have, for a long time, called for processing centres in France or Belgium to prevent crossings.
"Ultimately the only way to claim asylum at the moment, if you're not Ukrainian or if you're not from Afghanistan, is by actually coming to this country. You have to set foot here and that's the selling point for the gangs.
"So once that you've taken that element out, when the gangs can't sell you the line that you have to get here, people will say, well hold on, we can claim it while we're sitting in France. We don't have to pay a gang X amount to be trafficked over."
Harjap Singh Bhangal warned Rishi Sunak of the 'key factor' driving illegal migration
GB News
Bhangal then highlighted the impact of people smuggling gangs on illegal migrant crossings to the UK, and called for tougher prison sentencing for gangs.
Bhangal explained mandatory life sentences for people smugglers was the only way to really stop the scourge of illegal migration.
He added: "The key factor is catching the gangs. If you want to stop drug dealing, you catch the drug dealers. You don't lock up the drug users.
"People smuggling makes more money than drug dealing. We always hear about a war on drugs, we always hear about drug dealers getting caught in multiple numbers. When's the last time you heard of a war on people smugglers?
"When's the last time you ever heard of a people smuggling gang locked up? If they do, they get two or three years. I mean the most recent one, they got eight years, and they'll be out in four. We've got to give these people life."
Bhangal concluded: "We've got to really discourage them and disrupt their market model. And it's so big, it's so huge, most amount of money is made for it and it has to be cross country. Britain can't do it on its own. It has to work in cooperation with Europe.
"But it does look like European countries are sort of waking up and realising, well hold on, we need to catch these gangs. So the pledges aren't going to be fulfilled until the gangs are caught. It's quite simple."
