The last government’s record on tackling illegal crossings to the UK was abysmal. But now it is getting even worse
: Dan Kitwood
Do you remember the one about the one-legged Romanian roof tiler? These days, it would be politically incorrect to question whether someone with such a disability can make a living out of hot footing it up ladders, but back in 2004 the idea that such an individual would be granted a visa to live and work in the UK was considered quite outlandish. A British diplomat blew the whistle on what turned out to be a wider immigration scandal; all hell broke loose, and a Home Office minister was forced to resign.
Looking back at that controversy, what is striking is just how tame it was. The outcry surrounded the use of fake documentation to fast-track work visas for a small number of eastern Europeans. Fast forward to today, and the revelation that some 62,800 migrants who entered the UK illegally are likely to be granted permanent leave to remain has barely raised eyebrows at Westminster. We can be sure no heads will roll.
Why? Because the immigration crisis is so gargantuan that these huge numbers are almost a rounding error. Today, we have an entire industry devoted to bending and indeed breaking the rules to smooth the passage of fake asylum seekers and other illegal immigrants into this country. Vast sums of money are being made by all manner of unscrupulous operators off the back of the failure of successive governments to control our borders. It has all gone on so long, and become so deep rooted, that it has become almost impossible to hold anyone accountable.
What’s 62,800 between friends, when literally hundreds more illegals arrive by the week, via one route alone (Channel crossings) and who knows how many more sneak in on the back of lorries or via other less fashionable routes. What’s 62,800, between friends, when net migration is running at nigh on three quarters of a million a year? It’s just another footnote in the great immigration disaster.
Long before downtrodden economic opportunists from all over the world began pouring into the UK by small boat, the vast majority of asylum applications were thrown out. In 2004, around 88 per cent of asylum applications were rejected. Now even the most outrageous claims are accepted, with approvals running at around 78 per cent.
Were the Conservatives still in power, each and every one of the 62,801 individuals whose applications for asylum are now expected to be rubber stamped would have been disqualified from staying, after Rishi Sunak made it illegal to come to this country by small boat. In an act of breathtaking stupidity, Sir Keir Starmer scrapped that rule. Instead of deporting those who have no right to be here, the Home Office is now trying to find more places to accommodate them. What utter idiocy.
It was not necessary for Labour to support the now defunct Rwanda scheme to recognise the merit of a clear principle that anyone who comes to the UK by small boat should automatically lose the right to remain.
It’s a rule that everyone can understand; is easy to apply; and (with the law already in place) costs absolutely nothing. Coupled with the threat of deportation to Africa, it had some chance of acting as a deterrent.
Having proudly ripped up both measures, Labour has no deterrent. Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper are reduced to vacuously shouting about “smashing the evil people smuggling gangs”. If a single one has been broken up on his watch, we have yet to hear about it. Meanwhile the facts and figures speak for themselves: more migrants have crossed the Channel since he came to power, than on Sunak’s watch this year.
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