LABOUR peer Lord Alan West was forced to apologise yesterday after backing the detention of asylum-seekers in “concentrated Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme yesterday morning.
The retired Royal Navy admiral said of refugees crossing the Channel in small boats: “We need to actually deal with them in a concentrated place, whether it’s a camp or whatever.”
The former security minister, who served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, was discussing government plans to deploy nets to prevent refugee boats crossing the Channel.
Lord West said that this wouldn’t “solve the problem” because “until we resolve the way we deal with them in this country and get agreement from France and other European nations to take them back, then we’re stuck with them.”
He later apologised for the “I am sorry for my choice of words and the confusion caused. I was trying to get across the point that working with other EU nations will help resolve this.”
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