In 2022, 45,000 illegal immigrants entered small boats across the Channel, a historic record in the country
Sunak announced sweeping measures to stop the arrival of undocumented migrants and also to reduce waiting lists for asylum seekers
From now on it will automatically expel Albanians, who are the main asylum seekers and a third of those who enter illegally
The Channel border has become Rishi Sunak’s main headache since he came to power two months ago. In 2022, 45,000 illegal immigrants crossed from France in small boats and some lost their lives trying. Illegal entry has skyrocketed for two years as Brexit borders close. In 2021, 30,000 entered, but in previous years the figures were very low compared to the current ones. In 2020, 8,000 irregulars entered and in 2018 800.
A third of those entering without documents are Albanians and they do so through smuggling gangs with social media ads in Albania offering free travel to France. They are then charged to enter the UK. Employment opportunities in the UK are the main attraction for illegal immigrants. The Sunak government has taken a number of measures in two ways. First to reduce illegal immigration with agreements with France and Albania. And secondly, drastically reduce both the number of people who are granted asylum and those who are awaiting resolution, as well as the time needed to make a decision about it. There are currently 148,000 people awaiting resolution in UK hotels.
Rishi Sunak announced a few days ago a five-point plan to end illegal immigration during this 2023. The first step is to create a new permanent unified operational command of small boats that combines military, civilian and National Crime Agency (NCA) personnel. It will hire 700 employees. The ANC will also receive double funding to fight organized immigration crime in Europe.. The goal is to better coordinate intelligence. This new command will allow immigration officers to focus solely on law enforcement, doubling their ability to fight illegal gangs.
The exchange of data with the competent agencies will also be promoted to take vigorous measures against immigrants who work illegally. The third point is that the government will stop using hotels to house asylum seekers e instead it will use disused buildings and amusement parks. They hope to cut the current cost of retaining candidates in half. It will also double the number of social workers in charge of requests.
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 be repatriated on weekly flights in the coming months until “all Albanians awaiting asylum are removed”. Sunak wants to emulate Germany, France, Italy and Sweden, which reject almost one hundred percent of Albanian asylum applications.. Sunak noted that Albania is a pending country to join the European Union (EU), a NATO ally and is a member of the same anti-trafficking treaty as the UK.
Sunak will look into the British Modern Slavery Act for Albanians and amend it to prevent it from being abused to avoid deportation. Sunak said this it will “significantly” raise the threshold that people must meet to be considered modern slaves. For the first time, social workers will have to receive objective evidence of modern slavery. About 400 new specialists will work to expedite Albanian applications (and reject them) in a few weeks. The time to refuse an application will be reduced by 30 days.
Furthermore, it will send police officers to Tirana airport to cooperate with the local police. He has already reached an agreement with the French authorities so that British agents can participate in operations on French soil and vice versa. London and Paris have signed an agreement for increase the personnel guarding the canal shores by over 700 men and create a new unified command integrating the military, police and civilian administration to coordinate efforts.
“Hostile Environment”
Another of the controversial measures is the request to banks to cancel the accounts of those who are included in a list of illegal immigrants to which they will have access. These types of policies were later banned in the UK wind scandalof Caribbean nationals who came to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s to rebuild after the Second World War in exchange for permanent residency and many, by mistake they received a deportation order and their bank accounts were blocked. Then the government corrected. Now Sunak has recovered this measure, despite the controversy. At the time, he was part of a campaign to make illegal immigrants uncomfortable, with public billboard messages to create “a hostile environment”.
In this sense, it was a victory for the British government that the Supreme Court decided on December 19th the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda it does not violate the UN Refugee Convention or human rights laws and is therefore legal. It is a partial victory for the government. This does not mean that expulsions can begin now because appeals are awaited and because there is still an order from the European court of human rights from the summer which prevents immediate expulsions until all legal procedures have been exhausted.. The British Government understands that deportations to Rwanda are a key deterrent so that immigrants realize that even if they reach British soil, they cannot stay.
