A former Tory government minister has called on the British public to welcome illegal aliens who cross the English Channel into their homes to help reduce the cost of housing migrants in hotels, which has risen to a staggering £2.2 billion per year.
Former Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis has argued that the government should introduce a similar programme to the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme for Ukrainian refugees to open up the homes of Britons to those who cross the English Channel illegally, often without any identifying documents for officials to determine whether or not they have a criminal past beyond obviously showing contempt for the laws and norms of the United Kingdom by paying human traffickers to smuggle them into the country.
In a foreword to a report from the Policy Exchange think tank, the former government minister wrote: “We must do more to galvanise community efforts, such as by expanding the sponsorship model for Ukrainian refugees to other nationalities – so that the burden of supporting refugees is spread evenly, rather than falling on the poorest.”
The report, which found that the government is currently spending £3.5 billion to support asylum seekers in Britain and £2.2 billion directly on hotel payments, called for the “galvanisation of voluntary spirit” along the lines of the Ukrainian refugee scheme for alleged asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria who enter the country illegally.
At the same time, the report argued, the government should as an “urgent priority” step up efforts to stem the tide of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
“Once this has been achieved, it will be possible to implement a new safe and legal route – under parliamentary control – which shifts the focus of the UK’s support from those illegally crossing the Channel to those who are genuinely in need, such as women and children in conflict zones,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, according to The Times of London, the Home Office has reportedly been shelling out over half a million pounds sterling per day to reserve beds in hotels in preparation for a potential surge in small boats ferrying migrants from France to the beaches of Britain.
The paper, citing Home Office sources, claimed that the ministerial department charged with regulating immigration is currently paying for some 5,000 empty hotel beds under the auspices of seeking to prevent a repeat of last year when at one point over 4,000 migrants were crammed into small quarters at the Manston processing centre in Kent, which was designed to hold less than a third of that number.
Yet, the government has come under fire for the lavish spending on the plan, with Brexit leader Nigel Farage writing on Twitter: “Incredible that we are spending £500,000 a day for empty hotel rooms in anticipation of a surge in Channel migrants. The Tories have failed.”
It comes as 1,339 more illegals crossed the Channel in the past three days, alone, taking the total for the year to 12,772, nearly the same at this point of last year when a record-breaking 45,756 landed in the country. The surge in migrants as weather conditions have cleared has come as an embarrassment for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who claimed just last month that government policies had resulted in a decline in the people smuggler-operated crossings.
To add insult to injury, the government is reportedly preparing to offer effective amnesty to some 9,689 illegals who came to the country by boat since March 7th when the Illegal Migration Bill was introduced. The legislation would seek to prevent people who arrive illegally in Britain ineligible to apply for asylum. Yet, this will now seemingly exclude thousands who arrived before the bill was passed. Retroactive enforcement is now only expected to apply to deported migrants from trying to enter the country again.