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Rishi Sunak’s bid to stop Channel crossing migrants reaching British shores has suffered yet another blow after Home Office officials declared Turkey was not a safe country amid human rights concerns. Ministers were hoping to set up a migrant returns deal with Ankara after a surge in the number of Turkish people arriving illegally in Britain via small boats. Turks constituted the seventh largest group to cross the Channel from January 2022 to December 2023, with 4,187 making the perilous 21-mile journey. Three thousand Turkish nationals arrived via small boats in 2023 alone, bringing them up t…