The Bill is not about removing rights from genuine asylum seekers. But it is about ending the route across the Channel as a legitimate point of entry.
As a nation (and as a community in Newbury) we have a proud record of offering asylum to those with a well-founded fear of persecution. Almost 500,000 people from Syria, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and, more recently, Ukraine have been granted asylum in the United Kingdom since 2015.
Integral to this Bill (and a matter which I have discussed with the Prime Minister) will be the establishment of new safe routes that will give asylum seekers from other states the opportunity to claim asylum, which are referred to in the Bill at section 51.
However, I think it is absolutely right that the Government closes down the route across the channel. Five years ago, 300 people arrived in small boats over the Channel. Last year that number had risen to 45,000. Of those, over 80% are men aged between 18 and 40 – not the demographic who would ordinarily be prioritised for asylum.
15,000 of them were from Albania – a safe European democracy and NATO partner to the United Kingdom.
It is a further fact that every one of those journeys is facilitated by criminal gangs.
When he gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee last October, Dan O’Mahony the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander said:
“The rise has been exponential. We think it is mainly due to the fact that Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France and have been facilitating very large numbers of migrants.
Whatever sort of criminality you can think of… there are Albanian gangs dominating, be it drug smuggling, human trafficking, gangs, prostitution. So a lot of the Albanian migrants – are not actually interested in seeing their claim through. We will typically put them up a hotel for a couple of days and then they will disappear into the underworld.”
To complicate matters, nearly all those arriving have no identification documents. The smugglers encourage this because it means genuine asylum seekers become mixed-up with others, making verification slow, adding to backlogs and increasing the chances of everyone getting in. This means that the Home Office has to make assessments without hard evidence and is often granting applications because, in the absence of any identification documents, it cannot prove the contrary.
The purpose of this Bill is therefore to put an end to this route and break the business model of the people-smuggling networks.
Simultaneously new safe and legal routes will mean that those who are genuinely seeking asylum will be able to make applications to the United Kingdom without risking their lives in boats.
The purpose of this Bill is therefore not to extinguish the right of any genuine asylum seeker, but rather to stop the dangerous route to this country in small boats across the Channel.
You may be interested to watch my interview with Sky News following the Home Secretary’s statement on 7 March here.
The Bill is now beginning its journey through Parliament in which some of the issues, such as modern slavery, will be finessed.
However no responsible Government could tolerate a route so totally controlled by criminal gangs. If the Refugee Convention means anything, it means safeguarding routes for those in genuine need not those hoping to game the system.
(March 2023)
