Sunak’s Plan To Reduce Illegal Immigration To Britain

The English Channel border has become Rishi Sunak's main headache since coming to power two months ago. In 2022, 45,000 have crossed it illegally from France in small boats and some have lost their lives in the attempt. With the closure of post-Brexit borders, illegal entry has skyrocketed for two years.

In 2021, 30,000 entered, but in previous years the figures were much lower than at present. In 2020, 8,000 irregulars were recorded and in 2018, 800.

One-third of those entering without papers are Albanians and so through smuggling gangs with ads on social media in Albania offering free travel to France. They are then charged a fee to enter the UK.

Job opportunities in UK are the main attraction for undocumented people. The Sunak government has adopted a series of measures in two ways. Firstly reducing illegal immigration with agreements with France and Albania. and second, to drastically reduce the number of people who have been granted asylum pending a resolution, as well as the time to make a decision.

There are currently 148,000 people waiting for resolution in hotels across the United Kingdom.

Rishi Sunak a few days ago announced a five-point plan to end illegal immigration during this 2023. The first point is to create a new Integrated Standing Operations Command of small boats that combines military, civilian and National Crime Agency (NCA) personnel. , English).

700 employees will be recruited in this. The NCA will also receive a doubling of its funding to tackle organized migrant crime in Europe.

The goal is to better coordinate intelligence. This new mandate will allow immigration agents to focus solely on law enforcement while doubling their ability to deal with illegal gangs.

Sharing of data with relevant agencies will also be encouraged to take forceful measures against illegal immigrants. The third point is that the government will stop using hotels to accommodate asylum seekers and instead use disused buildings and amusement parks.

They hope to cut the current cost of retaining applicants in half. The number of social workers in charge of requests will also double.

albania, safe country

Finally, the government will consider Albania a "safe country". This means that "the majority of applications" will be rejected and thousands of Albanians will return on weekly flights in the coming months until "all Albanians with asylum are removed".

Sunak wants to emulate Germany, France, Italy and Sweden, which reject nearly 100 percent of Albanian asylum applications. Sunak said Albania is a country waiting to join the European Union (EU), a NATO ally, and a member of the same anti-trafficking treaty as the UK.

Sunak will review the British Modern Slavery Act for Albanians and amend it to prevent it being misused to avoid deportation. Sunak said it would "significantly" raise the threshold that people must meet to be considered modern slaves.

For the first time, activists would have access to objective evidence of modern slavery. Some 400 new specialists will be tasked with speeding up (and rejecting) Albanian applications in a matter of weeks. The time to reject an application will be reduced to 30 days.

In addition, it will send police officers to Tirana airport to cooperate with the local police.

It has already reached an agreement with the French authorities to allow British agents to participate in operations on French soil and vice versa. London and Paris have signed a deal to increase the number of staff guarding the canal's banks by more than 700 and create a new unified command that integrates the army, police and civil administration to coordinate efforts.

"hostile environment"

Another controversial measure is the request to banks to cancel the accounts of people who are included in the list of illegal persons to whom they will have access. These types of policies were banned in the United Kingdom after the Windrush Scandal, Caribbean nationals who came to the United Kingdom in the 50s and 60s to rebuild it after World War II in exchange for permanent residency and many They were received by mistake.

A deportation order was issued and their bank accounts were frozen. Then the government reformed. Despite the controversy, Sunak has now recovered the remedy.

At the time, he was part of a campaign to make illegal immigrants feel uncomfortable with messages on public billboards to create a "hostile environment".

In this sense, it was a victory for the British government that the High Court ruled on 19 December that the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda did not violate the UN Refugee Convention or human rights law and was therefore legal. This is a partial victory for the government. This does not mean deportations can begin now as an appeal is awaited and because there is still a court order from the European Court of Human Rights due in the summer that prevents immediate deportations until all legal process is over.

The British government understands that deportation to Rwanda is a significant deterrent for migrants, who feel that even if they reach British soil, they cannot stay.

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