British Prime Minsiter Rishi Sunak has announced his plan to deal with the ever-growing migrant crisis in the English Channel, including signing a pact with Albania to quickly return illegals back to the Balkans nation.
Appearing before the House of Commons on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak unveiled a five-point plan in order to cut illegal immigration as over 44,000 boat migrants have arrived on British shores so far this year and his party faces increasing pressure over its failures to “take back control” of the borders.
The main feature of the plan is the new agreement signed with Albania, which Mr Sunak said would put the country on equal footing with other “safe” nations in Europe and therefore would see the “vast majority” of illegals from the Islamic country removed “swiftly” as it will become harder for migrants from the country to claim that they are in need of asylum. He went on to say that the government will issue new guidance to asylum caseworkers to “make it crystal clear” that Albania is a safe country.
In addition to this, Sunak said that the government will be “significantly” raising the threshold for asylum seekers to claim that they are victims of modern slavery, which Albanian criminal drug gangs have previously used in order to skirt immigration laws.
The PM also said that the deal will include the stationing of British Border Force officials in the airport of Albania’s capital city Tirana, in order to “disrupt organised crime and stop people coming here illegally.”
“We have sought and received formal assurances from Albania confirming they will protect genuine victims and people at risk of re-trafficking, allowing us to detain and return people to Albania with confidence and in line with this E-Cat treaty,” Sunak added.
“As a result of these changes the vast majority of claims from Albania can simply be declared clearly unfounded and those individuals can be swiftly returned.”
Another central aspect of the prime minister’s plan will be to end the use of hotels for the over 40,000 people claiming to be refugees, which is currently costing the taxpayer upwards of £5.5 million a day. The plush reception of illegal immigrants in Britain has often been cited as a key “pull factor” in attracting people to make the perilous journey from Continental Europe, as there is a widespread perception that they will be treated better in the UK. Those already in hotel accommodations will be moved to either former/surplus military sites, holiday camps, or student accommodation sites.
The hope is that this massive 150,000 backlog of people waiting for their asylum claims to be processed will be reduced by the government doubling the number of caseworkers. Under the scheme, refugees from countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Syria will be fast-tracked while other countries less likely to be approved being put down on the list.
“We expect to abolish the backlog of initial applications by the end of next year,” Sunak said.
“Enough is enough,” he said, adding: “Unless we act now and decisively, this will only get worse”.
“It is unfair that people come here illegally. It is unfair on those with a genuine case for asylum when our capacity to help is taken up by people coming through and from countries that are perfectly safe. It is unfair on those who migrate here legally when others come here by cheating the system and above all, it is unfair on the British people who play by the rules when others come here illegally and benefit from breaking those rules,” the PM said.
Sunak went on to announce yet another reshuffling of command of the situation in the English Channel, with a new small boats command — under control of the Home Office rather than the Ministry of Defence — to be staffed with 700 extra officers from the Border Force and the National Crime agency in order to consolidate the hitherto “fragmented” response to the crisis.
He said that with this new command, immigration officers will be freed up so that they can actually get back to their roles in tackling the actual exploitation of illegal migrants on the black market.
Some were not convinced by the plan, which notably left out any mention of actually sending boat migrants directly back to France, a country the UK has sent tens of millions to clamp down on illegal migration to apparently no avail.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice described it as a “pathetic announcement by Rishi Sunak on illegal immigration Truly hopeless Nothing will change. The numbers of illegals will rise. The cost will rise. Is that really all you have got Rishi?”.
All of this also does absolutely nothing to tackle the record levels of legal immigration to the United Kingdom. Sunak’s Conservative government has come under increasing pressure over their failure to tackle illegal immigration while at the same time allowing in record numbers of legal immigrants coming to the country, going against years previous promises from the party to cut immigration.
A poll last month found that nine in ten Britons believe that the government has performed badly on immigration and another survey this month found that nearly six in ten Brexit voters would support an alternative party that made migration a central issue.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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