The UK illegal immigration crisis, a Brexit imbalance

The controversial new law to stop illegal immigration into the UK introduced in Parliament by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday reflects one of the main problems facing the UK. This new law will empower the Ministry of the Interior to deport those who enter the country clandestinely to their respective countries or to Rwanda, African country 6,500 kilometers away with which it has an agreement to drive asylum seekers. The deportation to Rwanda is still being fought in the courts. In addition, it will veto your entry into the United Kingdom forever, as it happens in Australia and the United States. When the law is approved in parliament, where the Conservatives have a majority, it will apply retrospectively from the day it was introduced.

The origin of this crisis is Brexit despite the fact that the Government does not recognize it and attributes it to the international immigration crisis. But the truth is that, since the exit from the European Union (EU) was consummated, illegal immigration has multiplied exponentially because the bilateral agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom that allowed undocumented people to be deported to France, Italy and the countries from which they left has stopped working. To get an idea of ​​the magnitude of the problem, before Brexit, 800 illegal immigrants entered and last year 45,000 were reached. For this year it is expected to exceed 80,000.

All these illegals enter the United Kingdom with boats through the English Channel that joins France and England and that would be the equivalent of the small boats in Gibraltar. Many of them die on the way on days of rough seas because the boats are increasingly loaded with people. Most of these immigrants request political asylum. They throw the passport into the sea to avoid being identified, complicate deportations and stay in the country. Once in British territory, they are taken to a center in Manston and, from there, to hotels, where they await the outcome of their asylum application process, which can last for years.

Right now, there are 175,000 people pending asylum in hotels which, according to Sunak, cost taxpayers 6 million pounds (6.7 million euros) a day. Many of these undocumented immigrants escape from conflict zones such as Syria, Iraq or Eritrea. But a third of the 45,000 are Albanians who are brought into the country through people-smuggling mafias. These mafias take advantage of the enormous legal vacuum created by the exit from the EU. The bill was introduced in parliament by British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who represents the most ultra-conservative and Brexiter faction of the Conservative Party.

Braverman acknowledged that this law exceeds the limits of international law, that is, that it could violate international law and that they were talking to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He also said that, with this law, they want to send a strong and unequivocal message to all those who are thinking of crossing the channel that this is a hostile destination and discourage them and dismantle the mafias. The reasons why they come to the United Kingdom are because there is more lax legislation here than in France, for example, and because there are better job options. The head of the interior of the Labor opposition, Yvette Cooper, criticized this plan as unfeasible because there is nowhere to send the undocumented beyond Rwanda. AND reminded Braverman that the radical crackdown on illegals in recent years initiated by Boris Johnson had been for nothing. Braverman was the Johnson administration’s general counsel before she was appointed head of the Interior.

The bill includes a revision of the modern slavery law that Albanian immigrants cling to in order to obtain asylum, despite border officials saying that when they are detained they confess that they are economic migrants. They want to raise the threshold that people must meet to be considered slaves. They believe that Albanians are abusing the law despite Albania being a NATO partner, having signed the Human Rights Convention and opting to join the EU. Humanitarian organizations, for their part, reproach the government for putting all immigrants in the same bag. They ask him to make safe humanitarian corridors for immigrants fleeing conflict zones as he did with the Hong Kongers, Afghans or Ukrainians.

A Franco-British mini-summit is scheduled for this Friday in Paris between Macron and Sunak to deal with cooperation between the two countries, which has increased in recent months, since Sunak came to power. This cooperation, however, focuses on the increase in surveillance patrols on the French coast. Since Brexit occurred, the two countries have been passing laws each on their own, in an uncoordinated way. Macron has already said that he will not allow the repatriation to France of illegals who cross into England from his territory if it is not covered by a bilateral agreement between the UK and the EU.