Albanians could be banned from making modern slavery claims to stay in Britain

A BAN on Albanians claiming protection under the Modern Slavery Act could be used to tackle the Channel migrant crisis.

Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, is said to back plans outlined in a report by Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former aide, published this morning.

The paper, written for the Centre for Policy Studies, states that modern slavery laws – brought in by Mrs May when she was home secretary – are being “unscrupulously abused” by Albanians.

It suggests that, to tackle the problem, whole nationalities of claimants should be excluded from the scheme “where it is clear that there is widespread and organised abuse of the law”.

The report states: “Modern slavery laws are unscrupulously abused. While this has been happening on a small scale for years, it [is now] standard advice to illegal immigrants from Albania to claim to be victims of trafficking.

“Indeed, modern slavery legislation has become the first line of defence for many illegal immigrants, with the ECHR as their fallback position.”

It adds: “An internal Home Office review of modern slavery… is already under way, but legislation will certainly be required to tighten criteria and raise the evidential threshold for making a claim under the Act.

“We should also look at streamlining the decision-making process and reducing bureaucracy… and introducing exclusions for whole nationalities of claimants, where it is clear that there is widespread and organised abuse of the law.” In the most recent quarter to Sep- tember, there were 4,586 modern slavery claims, a 10 per cent increase on the preceding quarter.

It means the UK is heading for 16,000 claims this year, compared with 3,805 submitted to the national referral mechanism in 2016.

The most common nationality referred was Albanian, which accounted for 28 per cent (1,294) of all potential victims. The number of Albanian nationals has surpassed UK nationals for the third consecutive quarter.

While Mrs Braverman has said she does not agree with everything in the think tank’s report, she is understood to

be in favour of rewriting modern slavery laws. Under the Modern Slavery Act, people can claim the right to live in the UK if they can show they are victims of exploitation or trafficking.

It is an entirely different process to that used by people seeking asylum, who have to show they are fleeing war or persecution.

At the weekend, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, indicated that barring people from safe countries such as Albania from claiming asylum was among measures being considered.

The Daily Telegraph understands that legislation will be brought forward in the New Year to make it easier to refuse asylum applications.

The Government is going to change the law to state that where a person comes from a country on the “white list” of safe countries, there will be automatic refusal.

People will be immediately detained pending removal. The white list, drawn up in 2002, includes Ukraine.

The CPS report, co-written by Mr Timothy, also calls for new laws barring migrants who enter illegally from ever settling in the UK. It recommends that ministers should legislate to make it impossible to claim asylum in the UK after travelling from a safe country.

It calls for the overhaul of human rights laws – with the UK “if necessary” withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights – to enable detentions and off shoring the processing of asylum claims.

And it states that ministers should be looking for deals with other countries to supplement the stalled plan to deport migrants to Rwanda for processing.

The report says that the points-based immigration system introduced after Brexit has increased legal migration. It states: “Just as Australia’s points-based system was designed to increase immigration, so too was the new British one – but without, as the Channel crossings show, the quid pro quo of border control.”

Mr Timothy was an aide to Mrs May when she brought in the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 to crack down on people trafficking – but he is now critical of the legislation.

In a foreword to the report, Mrs Braverman pledges to do “whatever it takes” to deal with the migrant crisis in the Channel.