Latest news with #illegalmigration
Times
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Times
Five EU countries oppose one-in, one-out migrant scheme
Italy, Spain and three other European countries have attacked the UK's plans for a one-in, one-out migrant returns deal with France, warning it could leave them having to take back people returned from Britain to the Continent. Sir Keir Starmer and President Macron are working on an agreement that would allow Britain to send illegal migrants who cross the Channel in small boats back to France. In return Britain would accept migrants with a legitimate case for joining family in the UK. Five EU countries, including Greece, Malta and Cyprus, have sent a letter to the European Commission objecting to the proposals. They fear that existing EU rules would allow France to deport illegal migrants they receive from the UK back to the country where they first entered the bloc. 'We take note — with a degree of surprise — of the reported intention of France to sign a bilateral readmission arrangement,' the letter, seen by the Financial Times, said. 'Such an initiative raises serious concerns … procedurally and in terms of potential implications for other member states, particularly those of first entry.' A record number of small boats have arrived on UK shores this year BEN STANSALL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES The objections could potentially scupper the plan, which Downing Street hoped to announce at a summit with Macron early next month. It was due to start as a pilot to see if it reduced the 'pull factor' of the UK as a destination for illegal migration. Under the deal, a joint UK-France processing system would be set up to indentify migrants who have a valid claim for family reunification in Britain. For each migrant relocated to Britain, an illegal migrant would be returned to locations across France, away from its northern coast. Any migrant who made a return journey to the UK would be identified through their biometric details and sent back again. Government sources said that the pilot scheme would show 'proof of concept' and not repeat the 'mistakes' of the previous government's Rwanda scheme. They pointed to other progress that they hope will combine to start reducing the numbers of migrants arriving on small boats after a record high of 18,518 this year, which is 42 per cent higher than this time last year. French police are due to start implementing a law that will allow them to intercept migrant boats up to 300m into the sea within days in another move that UK ministers hope will reduce the numbers crossing.
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Can We Be Great Again? Jeremy Hunt on how to solve mass migration
Is it actually possible to solve the problem of mass migration? And more specifically, that of illegal migration? It's the policy issue that continues to sink successive governments - but Jeremy Hunt thinks he has the answer. Along with Camilla Tominey, Jeremy is joined by former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk, and Director of the Migration Observatory, Madeleine Sumption to put his ideas for solving the problem to the test. In this episode of The Daily T, Hunt admits that the Conservative party failed on immigration when they were in government, and that the issue was 'problematic in lots of Conservative seats' at the last general election, but also insists that 'Labour will bitterly regret cancelling the Rwanda scheme'. As well as outlining his case for international laws and treaties to be rewritten in order to fix the current 'intolerable situation', the former chancellor also makes the point that the people most concerned about uncontrolled immigration are actually immigrants themselves, that they're 'proud to be British' and don't like the idea that 'British hospitality is being abused'. In this special Daily T series inspired by his new book, Jeremy Hunt pitches his optimism and ideas to leading experts on how the UK can change the world for the better. From mass migration to leading the AI revolution, we ask, can we be great again? Can We Be Great Again?: Why a Dangerous World Needs Britain, by Jeremy Hunt (Swift Press, £25), is out now. Click here to order Watch episodes of the Daily T here. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
We cannot trust the French to solve our migration woes
A new deal with France over illegal migration is to be announced when Emmanuel Macron makes his state visit next month. Still being negotiated with Bruno Retailleau, the French interior minister, this may offer some relief to the beleaguered communities directly impacted by the record numbers now landing daily on the south coast. The detail matters, of course, but the bottom line is that for every migrant who crosses the Channel, Britain would be entitled to return another: 'one in, one out'. This would certainly be an improvement on the status quo. Most people are heartily sick of watching French border forces and navy turn a blind eye to the mass exodus from their shores to ours. So far this year, more than 18,000 illegals have arrived here by boat, despite the British paying the French up to half a million pounds a day to stop them. We are now asked to believe that this scandalous state of affairs is about to change overnight. Yet as one of its first acts, Labour cancelled the Rwanda scheme. For all its faults, that plan offered both a speedy remedy and a powerful deterrent to unlawful migration. The deal now being negotiated with France, by contrast, promises no such thing. What is to stop illegal migrants who are returned to France from trying again? The odds on success will still be high. Compared to the strong likelihood of being sent to Rwanda, many will fancy their chances under this deal. However cordial the new entente may be, the security of our borders will be at the mercy of whoever is in charge in Paris. History suggests that this might not be the most reliable basis for British immigration policy.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The loophole fuelling Britain's illegal migration crisis
The small boats crisis is perhaps the perfect example of British state failure. It begins with our unwillingness to reconsider refugee conventions that function as a backdoor for economic migration, is mediated by Border Force effectively serving as a ferry for anyone able to drag themselves halfway into the Channel, and is fuelled by the lure of a taxpayer-funded hotel with ample working opportunities on arrival. Between them, these factors explain why Sir Keir Starmer's promises to end illegal migration by 'smashing the criminal gangs' are doomed to fail. And they also suggest the easiest way to start cutting arrivals: smash the gig economy instead. Earlier this week, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, directly accused a swathe of delivery companies of failing to prevent hotel migrants from finding work through their platforms. On visiting a hotel, he wrote, he found 'delivery bags' for multiple companies and spoke to a local shopkeeper who said migrants were 'regularly' riding bikes bearing the logos of these companies. At the moment, gig economy firms benefit from a glaring loophole in right-to-work checks. Companies are obliged to check the status of those they employ, but not self-employed workers carrying out contracts on their behalf. The result is that gig economy firms have no effective liability for illegal work that takes place through their platform. Many of these firms insist that they already conduct identity checks on riders who sign up for their platform, and indeed they do. It's also plain that these checks are clearly not actually preventing illegal working; as Philp observed, anyone who passes by an asylum hotel can see that there are quite evidently flaws in the current set-up. The result is a flourishing market in account buying, rental and substitution. Earlier this year, I joined several pages on Facebook dedicated to exactly this. Each had tens of thousands of members: 40,000 for one, 46,000 for another, 75,000 for a third, 51,000 for a fourth. Members discussed how to deal with identity verification on rented accounts, complained that people whose accounts they had worked on had failed to pay them, and offered accounts for sale and rent. The sums involved can be substantial. Pay £75-100 a week to rent an account, £60 to rent a bike, and graft at deliveries and you can bring in £500 a week in delivery fees while the Home Office pays for your food and board. And as you're working illegally, you're unlikely to pay any income tax or National Insurance unless you are both very conscientious and very stupid. As some have pointed out, there are asylum hotels in the centre of London. One, in particular, sits near studio apartments for rent starting at £1,600 a month. With your illegal earnings at roughly £17,860 of spending power over 52 weeks, £19,200 of Zone 1 housing services, no council tax (a £1,530 saving for our Band B flat) or utility bills (say £1,261) to pay (meals provided by your hotel), and £9.95 in weekly cash from the Government, a hypothetical boat arrival would enjoy a lifestyle that a taxpaying legal worker would have to earn more than £50,000 to achieve. Small wonder, then, that an Istanbul-based people smuggler told an undercover Telegraph journalist that Britain is the location of choice for illegal migrants because 'all you need is a mobile phone and a bike' to make 'good money'. Small wonder, either, that 42pc of the riders stopped by a Home Office enforcement team in April 2023 were working illegally. One police officer who had been out on enforcement activities noted that a force sent 'a few cars out to find people working illegally. Each car pulled over a bike, and each one took a rider in for working without a visa or overstaying. It was crazy that we had a 100pc hit rate'. More interesting was the degree to which this is coordinated. 'They have groups as well, not only to buy and sell accounts. They message each other when they start getting pulled over or get into accidents. 'You'll have a bunch showing up to help, or they'll all leave town and go to another area to work there for the day. Not the most hi-tech solution, but it works.' At the moment, the Government is making small steps towards dealing with this issue. The current immigration bill gives ministers the powers necessary to impose checks on substitutes through secondary legislation, but it hasn't set out a timetable for doing so. The bigger issue, however, is that laws only matter when they're enforced. The UK currently conducts roughly 9,000 illegal working visits each year, or 25 per day. Given that old estimates suggested that as many as 240,000 businesses may use illegal labour, even if the Government had a list of doors to knock on – and ignoring the entire issue of gig economy workers – it would take 27 years to work through the list. If the risk to businesses is tilted favourably, the risk to migrants is even lower. The entire immigration enforcement spend for 2023-24 was around £700m, while just 41pc of those turned down for asylum between 2010 and 2020 had been removed from the UK by 2022. The Government isn't going to deport them, they have no income and no assets to seize. What punishment is realistically coming? In other words, legal changes won't be enough without real teeth to enforce. As a former police officer noted, part of the problem is simply that enforcement is 'complicated by a silly division of responsibility and information'. Police, for instance, have 'almost nothing to do with immigration', and the national police computer won't show the migration status of someone stopped and searched. While it's possible to find out with a phone call, 'most officers won't even know that it's possible to check'. At the same time, with no list of visa over-stayers, police officers running into people and carrying out a check is one of the main ways we find out about illegal migration: immigration enforcement teams don't patrol or run into people in random encounters like police officers do. Like the stacks of bikes and bags at asylum hotels, none of this is hard to find. Nor is it hard to find out about the risks that these substitution practices – putting unvetted men in contact with customers – can enable. A freedom of information request submitted to the Metropolitan Police in 2023 showed that between 2019 and 2022, 38 delivery or postal workers were charged with sex offences. A harrowing story earlier this year set out how a woman was assaulted by a gig economy worker who essentially did not exist within the datasets held by the firm; no one had any record Closing the loopholes and lack of enforcement that allow illegal labour to flourish is vital to cutting off the pull factor for waves of illegal migration, and to ensuring the safety of the British public. Rather than ranting about 'criminal gangs', Sir Keir's administration should focus on what it can do on our shores.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Britain's migrant crisis being fuelled by Putin's Russia and other hostile states in secret plot to destabilise UK
RUSSIA is pushing migrants to the UK to overwhelm border defences and sow division, security sources warn. Vladimir Putin's tactics include providing fake documents, transport and even military escorts to smuggling gangs. 6 6 More than 18,000 have arrived in dinghies so far this year — and opposition MPs said the crossings should now be declared a 'national security crisis'. Senior security sources warned The Sun that foreign powers are backing or exploiting smuggling gangs in a bid to destabilise Britain. This week, Nato recognised illegal migration as a key threat to national security — by ruling that border protection can count towards every member's defence spending targets for the first time. Just 299 migrants crossed the Channel in 2018. The highest year for arrivals was 2022 at 45,774. Thousands of asylum seekers are being housed in hotels, increasing tensions in towns and cities. Some have since been charged with national security offences, as well as crimes such as rape. A top security source told The Sun: 'Hostile states and malign actors are using illegal migration to test borders, cause disruption and destabilise countries like Britain. 'That's exactly why Nato is now treating border protection as a core part of collective defence — because the lines between traditional military threats and national security are more blurred than ever.' Opposition MPs said our broken borders are being tested by hostile states while ministers sit on their hands. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'This is a national security crisis. A public safety crisis and border security crisis. 'The news that hostile states are weaponising illegal migration shows that the Government has been negligent in failing to tackle the boat crisis. 'The way to stop it is to immediately remove illegal immigrants to a location outside Europe. 'But Labour scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it even started and now record numbers are coming in.' Reform UK leader Nigel Farage added: 'I first warned this would happen in my European Parliament speeches over ten years ago. 'The crossings are a national security emergency.' Britain spends billions on border forces, coastal patrols and surveillance in the Channel. These can all now be logged as part of our Nato commitment. Senior officials say the move reflects how lines between military threats and criminal activity are being blurred by hostile regimes. Home Office insiders insist the UK is not blind to the growing risk from foreign interference in the Channel crisis. Countries such as Russia and Iran have long used underhand tactics to mess with the West — from cyber attacks and disinformation to stirring up migration. Security sources say Russia and its puppet-state Belarus have been accused of orchestrating migrant surges on Europe's eastern borders by providing fake documents, transport, and military escorts to the gangs. And only last month, three Iranian men charged with spying offences, including plotting violence on UK soil, were found to have reached Britain by 'irregular means' — including small boats and a lorry — before claiming asylum. In March Polish PM Donald Tusk suspended asylum rights for those arriving from Belarus — warning the crisis is part of a deliberate hybrid warfare strategy backed by hostile states. And Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto has accused the Kremlin-linked Wagner group of helping drive immigration from North Africa to Europe, calling it a 'clear strategy of hybrid warfare'. 6 Yesterday PM Sir Keir Starmer was at the Nato summit in The Hague in the Netherlands, where member states' leaders confirmed plans for all allies to spend five per cent of GDP on defence and security by 2035. The pledge covers 3.5 per cent for hard defence, like troops and weapons, and 1.5 per cent on wider security, which includes infrastructure, energy security and border protection. Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: 'National security is the first duty of any government — and that means securing our borders. 'We are improving our ability to monitor and anticipate illegal migration flows at both national and international levels, including investing in new state-of-the-art surveillance technology. 'Our Border Security Command is drawing together security operations around our border. 'This means working in close co-operation with Europol, Frontex and individual EU member states to combat organised immigration crime. 'New counter terrorism-style powers will tackle organised immigration crime groups, and existing capabilities carry out identity and criminal record checks on those applying for a visa, clandestine entries and those who arrive by small boat, so that potential threats are immediately addressed.' The Sun understands the Home Secretary has also ordered officials to review border security capabilities to ensure they are robust enough to deal with state threats, as well as terrorism -related risks. And after Sir Keir Starmer's meeting with Mr Tusk in January, the UK is stepping up co-operation with Warsaw to tackle the weaponisation of migration. THREE ASYLUM SEEKERS CONVICTED OF CRIMES IN UK Flasher 6 AYSLUM seeker Snur Hamakarim exposed himself to two young girls in an underpass. The sisters, aged 12 and 15, witnessed the 40-year-old drop his jeans as they walked home from school in Stevenage, Herts, in January. The Iraqi -born migrant had been in the UK for a matter of months. He was later seen on CCTV leaving the underpass 'with his trousers round his ankles'. Prosecutor Micha O'Neill told the town's magistrates' court the girls 'saw the defendant pulling his jeans down and exposing his penis'. Hamakarim was convicted of indecent exposure, fined £50 and given a community order with 200 hours' unpaid work. Trespasser 6 SYRIAN Mieser Oglo climbed into a security area near the Palace of Westminster so he could get a better view of the New Year fireworks on the Thames. The 18-year-old asylum seeker, below, scaled a 4ft-high gate on Canon Row, but claimed he had not realised what he was doing was illegal because the 'No Climbing' sign was in English and he could not read it. Oglo, who arrived in the UK last year and lives in asylum housing at the former RAF Weathersfield, appeared at City of London magistrates' court on Monday, aided by an Arabic interpreter. He told the court: 'Back home, it is normal to climb over fences.' He was convicted of trespass and fined £100. Arsonist 6 MIGRANT Zaidan Hossan Taha did not like the conditions of the home he was placed in — so set it alight. The 24-year-old, from Kurdish Iraq, was moved into a Leeds bedsit but was unhappy his food was being stolen. In April he was arrested after threatening to start a blaze there but was released. A month later, he set fire to a blanket in the kitchen and threw it on a sofa before leaving the property. It failed to take hold, but caused smoke damage. Taha was arrested and later spat in an officer's face. He admitted arson and assault and told Leeds crown court he came to the UK 'for a better life'. He was jailed for 26 months and told he would probably be deported after prison.
