Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Migrants plan ‘misery’
A PLANNED overhaul of immigration laws will “make life a misery” for those fleeing war and persecution, charities warned yesterday.
Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed to tackle the issue “head on”, telling MPS her New Plan for Immigration was “fair but firm”.
As well as life sentences for people smugglers, she plans to increase the jail term for illegal entry – and refuse rights and asylum depending on how they arrive.
Ms Patel hopes it will stem the flow of
migrants across the Channel in inflatables.
Last year about 8,500 reached UK shores, with most claiming asylum. A group of 67 suspected illegal immigrants were brought ashore at
Dover yesterday as Ms Patel prepared to unveil her plans.
The Government could also curb the number of visas offered to countries that refuse to take back failed asylum seekers.
But Safe Passage International chief executive Beth Gardiner-smith said: “These proposed reforms will do nothing to prevent dangerous Channel crossings – while making the lives of many who have fled war and persecution a misery.”
And Mike Adamson, of the British Red Cross, warned it “significantly reduced” available protections without fixing the system. Amnesty International’s Kate Allen said years of demonising asylum seekers by the Home Office “without any semblance of humanity” was increasingly presenting the UK as “firmly on the side of abusers and oppressors”. Labour’s Nick Thomassymonds warned: “These measures will do next to nothing to stop people making dangerous crossings and risk withdrawing support from desperate people.”