Mr. Sunak will update on progress on his promise to stop illegal migration. Credit: UNPIXS
Rishi Sunak is set to argue that the government's crackdown on illegal migration is starting to work, with figures showing that Albanians now make up just one percent of those who cross the English Channel.
In an update on Monday on progress on his pledge to stop boats, the prime minister cited the sharp decline in the number of Albanian arrivals as evidence that a tough stance on deportations would deter illegal migrants.
That number dropped from about 30 percent. arrived at the canal last year to one or two percent in the first four months of this year.
It is understood that thousands of Albanians are being hunted down by Home Office immigration officers and being pursued for deportation, although Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick admitted on Sunday that the government has so far only returned hundreds of Albanians who arrived in small boats.
In addition , a team of 400 case officers has been set up to expedite the handling of 16,683 Albanian asylum claims, and thousands more have been pursued by immigration officials, many of whom have gone into hiding.
Albanians working illegally in the UK have also been caught in a 50% increase in raids by immigration officers targeting the black market, especially those in the gig economy, such as delivery drivers.
The number of migrants crossing the English Channel this year through the end of May is down by almost 2,000 compared to last year's number at the same point: from 9,575 in the first five months of last year compared to 7,610 this year. Afghans and Indians partially replaced the Albanians.
Thousands of Albanians are known to be tracked down and deported by immigration officers of the Ministry of the Interior. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Mr Sunak's announcement Monday in Dover comes five months after he introduced «stopping the boats» as one of his five key pledges to win votes before the general public. elections next year.
But this comes amid a scandal within his own government over the need to cut legal migration, which recently topped 600,000 people.
Are you satisfied with Rishi Sunak's progress in fighting illegal migration?
It was revealed on Sunday that the Home Office estimated that the cost of detaining and deporting people arriving in the UK on small boats could be £6 billion over the next two years.
However, ministers believe that his new «assertive» approach and new deportation agreements with Albania have reached potential migrants from the Balkan state.
«The reason we are returning Albanians is to keep people from coming and it succeeds,” Mr Jenrick told Sky News on Sunday.
He said the Irregular Migration Bill, which is coming back in Monday, the House of Lords extended the same principle to migrants of other nationalities, detaining and deporting anyone who arrived illegally in the UK to a safe third country like Rwanda or their home country. country.
“If we can do this, we will break up the smuggling gangs, first of all we will keep people from crossing the border,” he said.
“And for Albania, you only have to compare their share of those people who crossed the English Channel in the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year to see that it has been extremely effective in creating the deterrent that we have begun.”
'Of the Albanians who arrived in small boats, how many returned under the so-called gold standard agreement?' @SophyRidgeSky
MP Robert Jenrick says «hundreds have been returned» but adds that it's «relatively early days». RidgeOnSunday June 4, 2023
He admitted that while thousands of people are returning to Albania as part of deals to expedite the deportation of both illegal migrants and foreign offenders, only hundreds of those who arrived in small boats have been returned.
«Hundreds of Albanians who arrived on small boats have been placed on these flights as a result of the processes we have put in place and the agreement we have reached with Albania,” he said.
Checks on migrants leaving the UK suggest that up to half of Albanians entering the UK leave within a few months. Tracking them is difficult due to the fact that 70 to 80 percent of Albanians are hiding from immigration bail.
As part of the containment tactic, Mr. Sunak is also expected to talk about Operation Maximization, which aims to introduce a national requirement for asylum seekers to share hotel rooms to save over £250 million this year alone.
Under the plan, groups of two, three or four single adult male migrants will be required to share a single room rather than separate rooms.
Ministers believe this will not only save taxpayers millions of pounds, but also serve as a deterrent as smugglers promote UK hotels and tourist attractions to persuade migrants to make the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats.
A government source said: “The goal is to reduce the need for hotels by maximizing the number we have, saving taxpayers money and reducing the UK pull factor to accommodate economic migrants in hotels that are more luxurious than our European counterparts. . .”
Mr Jenrick said on the BBC Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that anyone who is «really poor» will agree to share a room to «save money for the taxpayer» after migrants at the Pimlico hotel complained it was not like «good» accommodation they saw on Google Maps.
2,605 migrant crossings
A group from Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Bangladesh put up protest posters at the hotel entrance and at traffic lights with the words: «Help us”, “This is a prison, not a hotel”, “Inhuman conditions, dirty rooms” and “Homeless at the Ministry of the Interior”.
Speaking about the incident, Mr Jenrick said: “I think we asked them to share rooms to save money for the taxpayer, because anyone who is really poor, I think, will accept this offer. And I believe that almost all of the migrants in question have done so.”
He also said that net migration is “too high”, but targets to bring it down to a certain level are not “particularly useful” despite previous Tory promises.
The move is linked to plans to house 10,000 migrants at two abandoned RAF airfields at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex, a former prison in Bexhill, East Sussex, Catterick Barracks in North Yorkshire, a barge moored in Portland, Dorset and elsewhere.
The Bibby Stockholm barge is due to be towed from Falmouth to Portland within a few days, where it will accommodate 500 single male migrants.
p>
In Scampton and Wethersfield, their local councils are battling high court lawsuits, but ministers hope to open them by August to accommodate Channel migrants transferred from a processing center in Manston, near Dover.
p>
Свежие комментарии