Priti: I’ll turn back boats
■ Tough plan to smash gangs hitting Channel ■... but France will have to agree to take arrivals
BORDER guards patrolling the Channel will be given powers to turn back migrant boats, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced yesterday.
Her plans for a tough new approach were unveiled as three small vessels holding 67 people were intercepted and brought ashore at Dover.
Yesterday’s arrivals join the 183 who came on six boats on Tuesday – the highest daily total since the beginning of the year.
The latest official figures show 1,056 migrants have arrived so far in 2021, with 525 of those this month alone.
Miss Patel’s crackdown will be dependent on France and other countries accepting the return of migrants. ‘EU countries have a moral duty and a responsibility to be part of the solution,’ she said.
The planned shake-up includes other controversial steps includsions ing stripping failed asylum seekers of support and accommodation.
Foreign nationals could also be refused UK visas if their governments do not accept deportations of their own immigration rulebreakers from Britain.
France struck a deal with the UK in november to tackle illegal Channel crossings but has so far resisted the idea of having dinghies sent back to its northern beaches.
Miss Patel told the Commons: ‘We are addressing the challenge of illegal migration head-on.
‘We will seek to rapidly remove those with no right to be here, establishing a fast-track appeal process, streamlining the system and making quicker removal decifor failed asylum seekers and dangerous foreign criminals.
‘We will tackle meritless claims which the clog up the courts with last-minute claims and appeals... because for too long our justice system has been gamed.’
Referring to a series of drownings in the Channel last year, she added: ‘While people are dying, we have a responsibility to act.’
The Government’s new plan for immigration, published in full yesterday, revealed the bill for the asylum system is set to rise to more than £1.3billion this year, from just under £1billion in 2019-20.
The Home Office paper said: ‘We will introduce new powers to target the increasing use of vessels, both small and large, by criminal gangs to facilitate illegal entry to the UK.
‘These powers will enable Border Force to stop and redirect vessels out of UK territorial seas that they suspect are being used to facilitate illegal entry to the UK.
‘This power also includes the ability to return vessels intercepted, and those on board, to the country from which they started their journey, subject to that country agreeing to the vessel and persons’ return.’
Ministers will also consult local councils and other groups about ‘removing support from failed asylum seekers who have no right to remain in the UK’.
Currently 42,000 failed asylum seekers are supported at taxpayers’ expense.
Powers to remove support from such cases were passed by Parliament four years ago but have not been brought into use.
The new plan also set out ‘tit-fortat’ measures to restrict visas for people from countries that fail to accept returns from the UK. It is thought to be targeted at nations such as Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and the Philippines. Visas could even be declined for VIPs and businessmen, it is understood.
Those seeking asylum will have to lodge their full claims at the very beginning in a new ‘one-stop shop’ system, while last-minute legal challenges to avoid removal from this country will go through a ‘fast-track process’, the plan said.
lawyers who bring hopeless cases could be hit with a bill for the Home Office’s costs and – for the first time – for the cost of the court case itself.
The Home Office will also introduce measures allowing it to deport more refugees who break the law. Their refugee status will be revoked if they are jailed for 12 months or more, rather than the current two-year threshold.
Hauliers who bring clandestine migrants into the UK will also face tougher fines, with plans to increase the current maximum of £2,000 for every illegal entrant discovered aboard a vehicle.
For the first time, hauliers found with an ‘unsecured vehicle’ could face fines ‘regardless of whether clandestine entrants are found on board or not’, the paper said.
Shadow home secretary nick Thomas-Symonds said the measures ‘will do next to nothing to stop people making dangerous crossings and they risk withdrawing support from desperate people’.
Tim naor Hilton, of campaign group Refugee Action, said the plans were a ‘wrecking ball to the right to claim asylum in the UK’.
‘Our justice system has been gamed’ ‘Asylum costing taxpayers £1.3bn’