A UKRAINIAN-STYLE visa system would prevent deaths in the Channel and destroy smuggling gangs overnight, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has said.

Britain’s largest Civil Service union and refugee charity Care4Calais launched a new report to lobby politicians to provide a humanitarian alternative to small boat crossings in Parliament last night.

The 14-page Safe and Secure Routes: Refugee Visa-to-Travel Proposal report looks at similar schemes implemented in EU countries, the amount of people claiming asylum and at the estimated £5 million daily cost of keeping asylum-seekers in hotels.

It concludes that introducing a Safe Routes scheme would save money as well as lives by investing in infrastructure such as transit facilities, information centres and humanitarian aid services rather than “misplaced expensive deterrents.”

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “If a scheme is good enough for Ukrainians to claim asylum, it’s good enough for everyone else.

“At least 225 people have lost their lives attempting to cross the English Channel since 2018.

“The only way to reduce the heartbreaking waste of precious lives in the Channel is to provide safe and secure routes for those coming here seeking refuge.

“Our members in the Border Force tell us the current system isn’t fit for purpose.

“When safe routes exist, people use them. The will of the government is crucial for the success of safe routes, yet the Home Secretary is yet to engage with us.

“While the heads of other big departments of state have held meetings with us, [Home Secretary] Yvette Cooper hasn’t even sent a junior minister to talk to us.

“She says tackling immigration is a priority for the government but it doesn’t seem like it.”

Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “Refugees in Calais tell our volunteers every day that if they had a safe route to claim asylum in the UK, they would use it rather than risk their lives crossing the Channel.”

He said that the Ukrainian community that was gathering in Calais at the outset of Russia’s war dispersed overnight when the Ukrainian visa scheme was introduced.

PCS urged the government to trial a safe routes scheme, using the Ukrainian visa scheme as its template, to allow refugees to enter Britain safely and begin their asylum claim.

The Home Office was contacted for comment.