Hotel protests must not be used to ‘have a pop at the police'

Glasgow Times

7 hours ago

Dame Angela Eagle promised that the Government was 'doing the detailed work' to crack down on small boat crossings, after the Home Office unveiled its plan to pump an extra £100 million into tackling people smuggling.
Some of the money will support the 'one in, one out' returns agreement pilot with France, and some will go towards funding extended police powers to seize digital devices.
Protesters have gathered outside hotels over recent weeks throughout the country, including in London, Newcastle and Epping in Essex, calling for their closure.
(PA Graphics)
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has warned that 'the public's patience with the asylum hotels and with the whole issue of illegal migration has snapped', after small boat crossings topped 25,000 for the year so far, a record for this point in the year.
Asked on Sky News what her message was to protesters, Dame Angela said: 'Anger doesn't get you anywhere.
'What we have to do is recognise the values we have in this country, the rule of law we have in this country, the work we're doing with the police to protect people.
'We will close asylum hotels by the end of the Parliament.
'We'll do it faster if we can.'
Dame Angela also said: 'We are doing all we can to deal with the challenges that the police are facing on the streets to make sure that women and girls are safe, and in fact, that everybody is safe on our streets.'
She had earlier told Times Radio: 'Those who are worried and demonstrating have an absolute right to do that, so long as they do it peacefully.
'People don't have a right to then have a pop at the police, which has been happening in some isolated cases outside hotels.'
Dame Angela Eagle (Lauren Hurley/PA)
Referring to plans to let police seize devices from people suspected of facilitating people smuggling, Dame Angela said the Government does not 'want absolutely every phone'.
She told Times Radio: 'But we do want the phones of the people that we think are organising and facilitating, and this extra money will enable us to do much quicker analytics of the phones that we seize.
'But of course, we've got to get the Border Security Bill on the statute book to give us those extra powers.'
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has cleared the Commons but must undergo further scrutiny in the Lords before it becomes law.
Turning to social media creators who advertise illegal routes into the UK, Dame Angela said: 'We will stop anyone who comes to the UK where we've got evidence, and what happens is that the people smugglers are getting people to say how safe the journeys were and do adverts once they're in the UK.
'We will stop that, and we will also deal with other jurisdictions and ask them to help us deal with this as well, we could certainly do that in the EU with our colleagues in Germany, in France.'
Where there is 'evidence that legal routes to visas are being misused', the Government will 'tighten up the rules to stop that abuse happening', the minister added.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has previously said the money, which will also help pay for surveillance capabilities and data analysis tools, will 'turbo-charge the ability of our law enforcement agencies to track the gangs and bring them down, working with our partners overseas, and using state-of-the-art technology and equipment'.
She added: 'Alongside our new agreements with France, this will help us drive forward our plan for change commitments to protect the UK's border security and restore order to our immigration system.'
The National Crime Agency has 91 ongoing investigations into people smuggling networks affecting the UK, the agency's director general of operations Rob Jones said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Jenrick said: 'The public's patience with the asylum hotels and with the whole issue of illegal migration has snapped.
'This is an issue that is beyond party politics.
'It is causing immense harm to communities, and people's lives are being wrecked as a result of it, and we simply have to fix it.
'I respect those people who are peacefully protesting outside hotels this weekend, I understand why they feel so concerned.
'They're seeing their communities damaged, and I'm afraid there is increasing evidence of a serious link between illegal migration, migration generally, and crime, particularly sexual crime, against women and girls.'