THE HOME Secretary said she will make “no apology” for tougher immigration rules as she announced “the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades”.
Priti Patel’s new plan for immigration, detailing how the Government intends to deal with people entering the UK “illegally”, will be set out fully today.
The Home Office described the current asylum system as “collapsing under the pressures of what are in effect illegal routes to asylum, facilitated by criminals smuggling people into the UK and often resulting in the loss of life”.
“Fairness” and a genuine need for refuge are at the heart of the proposals, the department said, as well as including measures to tackle people smugglers, carry out more stringent checks on age verification and “remove more easily from the UK those with no right to be there”.
However those who work with asylum seekers say the measures risk criminalising those who are most vulnerable and in need, and suggest the UK Government does not care about creating a fair asylum system.
It comes after reports suggested that the Home Secretary w as considering using a "third country" to house asylum seekers while their asylum applications were being considered - a move widely condemned by opposition parties.
Ahead of the asylum plan launch today, Ms Patel said: “If people arrive illegally, they will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay.
“If, like over 60 per cent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry into the asylum system – which is what happens today.
“And we will stop the most unscrupulous abusing the system by posing as children, by introducing tougher, more accurate age assessments.
“Profiteering from illegal migration to Britain will no longer be worth the risk, with new maximum life sentences for people smugglers.
“I make no apology for these actions being firm, but as they will also save lives and target people smugglers, they are also undeniably fair.”
READ MORE: Scottish islands firmly "on the table" for Priti Patel's asylum detention centre plans
Access to benefits and family reunion rights could be limited while the appeals and judicial process will be reformed to “speed up” removals for those whose claims are refused.
The Government said it would continue to welcome refugees and help them build a life in the UK, with the Home Secretary having the ability to offer protection to vulnerable people in “immediate danger and at risk in their home country”.
But the measures, anticipated to be brought forward as part of a Sovereign Borders Bill, will also make it “much harder for people to be granted refugee status based on unsubstantiated claims” and include “rigorous age assessments” to stop adult migrants pretending to be children.
Tougher laws will be introduced to “withhold protection and remove dangerous criminals, even when they improperly claim to be victims of modern slavery”, the Home Office added.
Life sentences will be brought in for people smugglers, harsher offences will be imposed on people trying to enter the country illegally and foreign criminals who breach deportation orders and return to the UK could be jailed for up to five years instead of the current six months.
A new “one-stop” legal process is also proposed, so asylum, human rights claims and any other protection matters are all made and considered together ahead of appeal hearings.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, accused the Government of “seeking to unjustly differentiate between the deserving and undeserving refugee by choosing to provide protection for those fleeing war and terror based on how they travel to the UK” and claimed the plans could undermine the country’s traditions of providing protection for people “regardless of how they have managed to find their way to our shores”.
Kolbassia Haoussou, of Freedom from Torture, warned the proposals could see most of the people the charity helps become “criminalised”, adding: “These unreal proposals make it clear that this Government isn’t serious about improving lives and creating a fair asylum system.”
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