The issue of migrant trafficking across the Channel is of great concern to me & many constituents. I was very keen to get an up to date report of what the Government is doing & what the Home Office plans to do to stop these illegal migrants making dangerous journeys.
At a meeting with the Home Secretary this week I was able to outline these concerns & hear what the Government is doing to tackle the problem.
It’s important to start by saying that I’m proud of the UK’s record of supporting genuine refugees and asylum seekers. Last year the UK made 20,000 asylum grants. The UK has run the largest refugee resettlement scheme in Europe over the last 5 years and our town is incredibly welcoming to genuine asylum seekers and refugees fleeing war and persecution. I have met many of them & helped to support them and those who work with them.
However, the rise of economic migrants coming across the Channel on small boats is a worrying phenomenon. It cannot continue on present trends, and I made it clear to the Home Secretary that much more needs to be done to address the root causes of this illegal immigration.
Firstly, we need to address the pull factors head on. We need to ensure that people are not encouraged and incentivised to come to the UK for economic reasons, because the reality is not what is peddled to them by the criminal gangs who are engaged in people trafficking. Currently, the people we are seeing in the small boats are people or their families who can afford to pay thousands to criminal gangs, who are cynically exploiting vulnerable individuals desperate for a better life.
While it is understandable that people want to come to our country, if this option continues at this scale, it leads to human tragedy on a vast scale as the hoped-for life does not emerge for those people who may tragically end up being ensnared in criminality.
And on top of this, those people who are crossing now, are crowding out genuine asylum seekers and refugees who cannot raise those funds and using up the resources of our immigration and asylum system, which is set up to process genuine claims, meaning much longer delays for those people. This is not fair or just, and not the humanitarian aim of our asylum system.
I was pleased to hear that the Home Secretary agrees with me that the small boat crossings must stop and that the Government will do whatever it takes to get people who are here illegally returned to the first safe country they arrived in – those are the current rules.
But be in no doubt that other countries are facilitating the passage of these migrants to the UK. The French are not meeting their obligations by working to prevent these boats from leaving their shores in the first place. This is despite the fact that we have worked closely and collaboratively with the French and also given them taxpayers money to fund their security and policing services.
The Home Secretary did point out the UK is already returning people to France & Germany, in recent days charter flights have returned illegal immigrants. What is clear is that the French simply aren’t doing enough.
By the end of the year, the Government is working to have bilateral agreements in place which will allow us to track people and return illegal migrants to the first safe country.
It’s clear to me that our asylum system is not fit for purpose. The immigration system is open to vexatious and merit less claims – and I and the Home Secretary want to put a stop to this. We need an immigration system that is fair and just and we need to have a system that can help genuine asylum seekers.
The Home Secretary is clear that the law needs to change and she is determined to make those changes, despite furious opposition from some quarters.
However, I agree with her that the majority of people in this country want to see us controlling our borders, controlling who comes in while remaining a safe haven as we have done throughout our history to refugees.
Your concerns have been heard by the Home Secretary & I will continue to raise them until this situation is resolved and we can no longer say migrants being trafficked across the Channel.