The new leftist Labour government in Britain is reportedly planning to offer more than 100,000 migrants, mostly illegals, to apply for asylum to remain in the country.
After cancelling the planned Tory scheme to send illegal boat migrants to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed offshore, the new government of Sir Keir Starmer is set to allow some 90,000 boat migrants who were set for removal to apply for asylum in Britain, The Telegraph reports.
The 90,000 boat migrants are among around 102,000 reportedly set to be given the opportunity to stay in the UK as a means of reducing the strain on the asylum system by transferring that strain to the general population. The act would clear some 36,000 migrants being housed in hotels across the country at a cost of around £2.9 million per day to the taxpayer.
When asked if the new policy would mean that any migrant who arrives illegally by boat across the English Channel would have the immediate right to apply for asylum — a process that the previous Tory government legislated against — the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We need to ensure that people who arrive here are processed so that people are not sitting in the system, housed in expensive taxpayer-funded hotels as they have been under previous administrations.”
Former Home Secretary James Cleverly described the plan as an effective amnesty, saying: “The very first thing Labour did in government was scrap the Rwanda deterrent.
“The second is to grant an effective amnesty to 100,000 illegal migrants, who were banned from claiming asylum under our plans. It has taken the Labour Party less than five days to make the UK more attractive to asylum seekers than ever before.”
It comes as the first illegals have already been brought ashore in Britain under Starmer’s government, taking the total to an estimated 13,574 migrants, the highest number on record for the first six months of a year and 12 per cent higher than last year, according to the PA news agency.
While the previous ‘Conservative’ government of Rishi Sunak allowed in record waves of illegals, prospective boat migrants reportedly celebrated the victory of the left-wing Labour government.
One migrant in Dunkirk said last week: “It’s really good for us. We were really nervous in our countries to travel all the way here and get sent back… We no longer live in fear of them sending us to Rwanda. I’ve seen a couple of documentaries, and Rwanda is not the best place.”
Another said: “I like Labour government. I will cross at first chance. They give me hope.”
Rather than sending illegals to an offshore site like Rwanda as the Tories have called for, or using the Royal Navy to simply return boat migrants back to the beaches of France as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for, Starmer has said that he will increase spending to crack down on the people smuggling networks that facilitate the illegal crossings.
Starmer’s government is also reportedly considering plans to seek a migrant returns policy with the European Union in exchange for taking an annual quota of migrants from the bloc.
Meanwhile, Starmer has already received warnings from former Prime Minister Tony Blair — who first opened up Britain to mass migration. Blair argued on Tuesday that the new Labour government needs to limit migration or risk empowering anti-mass migration populists like Nigel Farage and his Reform UK.