The UK is set to pay Libya to prevent migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea and to send them back to their home countries as part of a new deal with the country.

The scheme, announced by illegal immigration minister Michael Tomlinson today, was being rolled out with the aim of clamping down on what he said were “record numbers of people headed towards our continent”.

Tomlinson was keen to stress the human cost of the small boat crisis in the Mediterranean – “we simply cannot afford to look away”, he said – and talked up the UK’s “leading role” in tackling numbers.

This kind of ‘upstream’ agreement has already been agreed with a set of other countries, including Turkey, Pakistan, India and a collection of European states – all with the goal of tackling illegal migration closer to its source.

Michael Tomlinson said the UK must have a "leading role" in tackling the crisis in Europe and globally