Asylum Seekers Who Travel Through Safe Countries to Reach Britain Should be Turned Away, Say Lawmakers

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Oliver JJ Lane

A new grouping of British Conservative members of parliament has called on the government to radically overhaul the “not fit for purpose” asylum system, saying migrants who travel to the UK from safe countries shouldn’t be granted asylum.

The letter to Boris Johnson from the so-called Common Sense parliamentary group comes as the United Kingdom faces an unprecedented influx of illegal migrants being assisted over the channel by people smugglers, and brought ashore by Border Force government boats. Over 5,000 boat migrants are known to have landed in the United Kingdom this year so far, an all-time high.

British newspaper The Daily Telegraph cites the Common Sense letter, signed by over 40 Conservative members of parliament and other top figures, in which Britain’s present immigration system is dismissed as “unfit for purpose”. The members call for “root and brand reform” and — perhaps most significantly — that asylum claims made by arrivals who travelled through safe countries before arriving in Britain be rejected.

Among the signatories cited in the report are Sir Edward Leigh and London Mayor candidate Shaun Bailey.

Why the United Kingdom accepts thousands of refugees from France — a safe, Western nation — is a question that has never been satisfactorily answered. But now the Common Sense group claim those illegal migrant arrivals from safe countries undermine the provision of asylum given to genuine asylum seekers.

The letter is not the first time the growing Common Sense group have intervened on the immigration issue. In early August, 23 Tory MPs wrote to the Home Secretary to demand the migration crisis blowing up in the English Channel be resolved. In the weeks since that letter was written, nearly 1,000 more migrants landed illegally on Britain’s south-eastern shores.

The Common Sense group plan certainly appears to chime with British public opinion. As Breitbart London reported in August, a YouGov poll found a general lack of sympathy with illegal migrants coming to Britain from safe countries to claim asylum. Only one-third of Britains polled thought the nation had a responsibility to accept illegals.

In contrast with those views, the situation remains presently that migrants who attempt to cross the Channel will be given assistance if they require it by the Border Force and lifeboat charities, and in the vast majority of cases not deported — both significant pull-factors for would-be illegals considering risking the dangerous voyage.

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