Rishi Sunak has pledged to introduce new laws to tackle illegal immigration, saying anyone who comes to the UK illegally will not be allowed to stay.
Making a series of announcements in the Commons, the Prime Minister said the legislation would be introduced early next year and that people who do not enter the country through legal and safe channels “will be detained and quickly returned to [their] country of origin or a safe country where [their] the asylum request will be assessed”.
It said those who came illegally “would no longer be able to frustrate removal attempts with late or spurious claims or appeals” and, once removed from the UK, “should have no right to settlement or re-entry citizenship”.
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But he pledged to work with the UN Refugee Agency to create more legal pathways “so that the UK remains a safe haven for the most vulnerable”.
“The solution shouldn’t just be what works, but what’s right,” Sunak said. “It’s unfair that people come illegally.
“Enough is enough.”
Labor attacked the government’s announcements as mere “gimmicks”, while the Liberal Democrats said the plans would “undermine crucial protections for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery”.
Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said it was a “shameful day” for the government, adding: “Most of these changes are cruel, ineffective and illegal, and will not nothing to fix the real problems in the system.”
Conservative MPs who praised the policies included former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, who called it “really strong and welcome action”.
But former prime minister Theresa May told Mr Sunak that “human trafficking and human trafficking are separate and distinct crimes and should not be treated or talked about as one,” adding: “Accountability must to be from the Ministry of the Interior improve its processing.”
“We must act now”
The Prime Minister announced five key points of his plan to tackle illegal immigration:
- A new small craft operational command to bring together agencies trying to deal with channel crossings
- Additional resources must be released to increase the number of raids carried out by immigration officers
- New sites, including disused holiday parks, former student centers and surplus military sites, to house asylum seekers, with 10,000 places identified costing half what is now spent on hotels.
- A doubling of asylum caseworkers and a streamlined process, with a promise to clear the backlog by the end of next year
- New deal with Albania to speed up return of asylum seekers to ‘safe’ country, including Border Force officers embedded at Tirana airport
The prime minister also announced that the government would restart its controversial flights to Rwanda to deport those arriving illegally, and that MPs could soon set an annual quota “to determine our capacity” to offer asylum to asylum seekers. asylum
“We have a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need,” Sunak said. “No one can doubt our generosity of spirit.
“But today too many of the beneficiaries of this generosity are not those directly fleeing war zones or at risk of persecution, but people crossing the Channel in small boats.
“Many originate from or travel through fundamentally safe countries, their journeys are not ad hoc but coordinated by ruthless organized criminals, and each journey puts the lives of women, children and, above all, men at sea at risk.
“This is not what previous generations intended when they drafted our humanitarian laws. Unless we act now and decisively, this will only get worse.”
Image: The number of people believed to have made dangerous channel crossings this year is more than 43,000.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer agreed that the Channel crossings were “a serious problem, which require serious solutions”, but said that “time and again this government has refused to deal seriously with a serious problem”.
“Where there should be solutions, we have had tricks,” he added. “Lots of newspaper headlines about wave machines, prison ships and fantasy islands, but no real action.
“It’s all designed to mask failure: to distract from a broken asylum system that can’t process claims, can’t return those who don’t have a right to be here, and can’t protect our borders” .
Sir Keir welcomed the fast-tracking of those without asylum claims, saying Labor had long called for the policy and the addition of more staff to process claims.
But he attacked the “unworkable and unethical plan to deport people to Rwanda” and urged the government to “work internationally to end this cross-border crime”.
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“Unbelievably Cruel”
Refugee Action’s Naor Hilton condemned the ads in almost their entirety, saying they would “cause misery to thousands of already traumatized people”.
The charity leader added: “New laws to ban people who have no choice but to cross the Channel from seeking asylum are incredibly cruel and refugees trying to reach family here could be deported back to danger.
“Meanwhile, ministers are still unable to commit to creating safe routes, a move that could end most small boat overnight crossings.
“Changes to anti-slavery guidance and the deportation of people based on broad and incorrect assumptions about their nationality will mean that many victims and refugees are at risk of further danger and exploitation.
“And it beggars belief that the government still intends to open new shared accommodation centers after the fatal Manston disaster, for which there has still been no commitment to an investigation.”
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The announcements come after a year of record numbers of people making perilous crossings of the Channel in small boats to reach the UK, with the number believed to have exceeded 43,000.
The government has made a specific point about the increase in Albanians entering the country via the route, saying they accounted for more than a third of the 33,000 who crossed in the first nine months of 2022, compared to 3% of all those who crossed in 2021.
It also comes amid criticism of the Home Office over the speed with which it deals with asylum cases.
Figures from the department in September showed that more than 143,000 asylum seekers were still awaiting decisions, and almost 100,000 of them had been waiting for more than six months, more than three times as many as in 2019.