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European Affairs

I agree with my hon. Friend. The Maltese MPs made the point that they were somewhat disappointed that we, as a fellow Commonwealth country and that country’s principal ally, had not taken a lead in the European Union to assist in that grave matter. Tens of thousands of west Africans are coming from Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary islands, which cannot cope. Many of those illegal immigrants will make their way to France or the United Kingdom, so there is no good saying, ““Well, of course this is not our problem,”” because it is. In a recent television documentary on illegal immigrants, many of them said that they were going to the Canary islands only as a way of getting to the United Kingdom, so we should be doing far more. The hon. Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins) made an interesting point when he said that controlling our borders was one of the critical ingredients of sovereignty. I estimate that illegal immigration is the biggest threat to our sovereignty. If a country cannot police its borders, it does not have sovereignty. Some of my colleagues say that the EU is the biggest threat to our sovereignty, but that is not the case. The biggest threat is not being able to police our own borders properly. Finally, I want to discuss a European country that has not been mentioned so far: Belarus.