TORY MP Adam Holloway said he couldn't get his haircut because his barber, who he said is an asylum seeker, went back to his home country on holiday.

The former soldier, who represents Gravesham in Kent, also warned MPs 'hundreds of millions' could seek a better life in Europe is people are settled here.

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Mr Holloway, a former journalist who spent time undercover at the Sangatte refugee camp for ITV and also pretended to be a deaf and dumb Bosnian Muslim in Serb territory, said: "I think that's one of the appalling truths, if you like, of the Syrian bodies that are being washed up on the beaches.

"They've previously got to safe countries and now they're choosing to come in Europe, again I would do it.

"Likewise, we have people in this country who have come here, claimed asylum and then they go back on holiday in the places where they've claimed asylum from.

"I couldn't have my hair cut the other day for that reason."

Earlier, Mr Holloway told an emergency debate on Europe's refugee crisis: "I think we've got to make it absolutely clear that you'll not be allowed to live in Europe if you try to get into Europe through the back door.

"Instead, if you're a refugee, you should be offered a well-resourced place of safety ... perhaps in Europe, but more probably in a safe place in the region where you live.

"If it turns out you're an economic migrant, you should be taken home. This isn't xenophobic, I think it's moral, practical, fair, and also sustainable over many years."

Mr Holloway said this approach is the only way to slow the 'bodies landing on the beaches' and for Europe to re-establish control of its borders.

He went on: "It's not an idle exaggeration or scaremongering to say over the coming years we're looking at potentially hundreds of millions of people seeking a better life in Europe, and the numbers have and will grow as long as we continue to reward these journeys with the opportunity to settle in Europe."

Mr Holloway also noted there are "plenty of very wealthy countries" with land close to the affected areas who could help refugees, adding Syria needs a regional solution.

He added: "At some stage we're going to have to realise that big boys' toys, you know, drones, lean men with suntans and biking moustaches, unseasonable suntans and fast jets, they are not the things that end wars.

"What ends wars ultimately is when you work on the politics and on that sometimes you have to go into partnership with some pretty unpleasant people. But that's for another debate."