Illegal boat migrants have reportedly been quietly given the right to work in Britain by the so-called Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a move critics warn will only serve to further incentivise illegals breaking into the country.
Almost 16,000 asylum seekers, including many who crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats launched by people smuggling networks on the beaches of France, have been permitted to work in Britain, according to data revealed under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws by The Telegraph.
This comes despite government policy stating that asylum seekers should not be able to work in the country while their claims are being considered.
However, according to the paper, the Home Office — the government branch tasked with managing immigration — has allowed some migrants to work in certain sectors of the economy allegedly facing shortages of workers, such as in agriculture, construction, and healthcare.
The report claimed that migrants can earn 80 per cent of the prevailing wage if they give up the £49.13 per week state government stipend afforded to asylum seekers. The foreigners can remain in government-provided accommodation under the scheme, however, if they pay for some of the cost. In total, 19,231 migrants applied to work under the scheme in 2022 and 15,706 applications were granted.
The scheme has been criticised by Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who warned that the policy would serve to increase the “pull factor” for more illegal migrants to come to the UK.
“This is a disaster. Once the traffickers can advertise jobs and free board, even more will want to come. Rwanda is completely irrelevant in comparison to this,” Mr Farage said.
Mr Farage’s criticisms were echoed by Conservative MP Miriam Cates, one of the leaders of the ‘New Conservatives Group of MPs’ seeking to implement stronger immigration controls.
“It’s understandable that asylum seekers might want to have a job while waiting for their claims to be processed,” she said. “But we cannot solve the significant problems associated with irregular migration unless we deter people from crossing to the UK illegally – and this is the opposite of a deterrent.”
The chairman of the Migration Watch UK think tank, Alp Mehmet added: “How can we take seriously the Government’s professed commitment to stopping the boats when such a ploy is under way?”
The revelation comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seeking to pass the final hurdles in the House of Lords to usher his Rwanda Bill into law, which the government has claimed will finally allow immigration officials to remove illegal boat migrants to asylum processing centres in the East African nation rather than allowing them to remain in the country while their claims are processed.
Last week, the government staved off a short-lived rebellion from the right of the Conservative Party, which argued that the legislation was insufficient to ensure that the scheme will not be bogged down in legal challenges from illegals and left-wing activist attorneys.
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who resigned from the government late last year over objections to the bill, put forward amendments to allow the government to ignore sections of human rights laws in order to prevent domestic legal challenges, as well as an amendment to give government ministers the authority to reject orders to stop flights from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which controversially stepped in to block the first flight to send migrants to Rwanda in the summer of 2022.
Prime Minister Sunak has claimed that despite the amendments being rejected by his government, he would still “ignore” attempts to use international law to prevent the migrant removal flights, which he hopes to begin by the spring.
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