A competent response to the migrant crisis
Britain’s asylum system is not working. Worse, its noblest intentions are being twisted to prevent arrivals being sent home, as when Albanian immigrants en masse claim refuge as victims of modern slavery. The results are clear: a loss of control over both who is allowed in, and who is allowed to stay. Some 44,000 have waded ashore after crossing the Channel on small boats in 2022.
We are by no means alone in finding solutions hard to come by when dealing with this problem. But for an island nation, this predicament is particularly galling.
This is why the release of a report on the issue, compiled by Telegraph columnist Nick Timothy, chief of staff to former prime minister Theresa May, is welcome. Instead of passively accepting all new arrivals, or the edicts of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Britain can consider some of the measures set out in the document and respond proactively.
These measures include indefinite detention of all asylum seekers who enter the country illegally, legislation barring migrants who enter illegally from settling in Britain, or anyone claiming asylum here if they have travelled from a safe country. The report also proposes reforming the Modern Slavery Act to prevent the citizens of nations such as Albania from using it falsely to claim refuge. Mandatory identity cards would be introduced, and those entering Britain illegally would be sent to Rwanda – deportations that would be guaranteed, if necessary, by withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights. Successful asylum applications would be capped at 20,000 a year.
Not all of these measures will be right. Britain has only recently, for example, reacted nobly to two situations – in Hong Kong and Ukraine – that have required more elastic policies. Britons, on each occasion, have shown their hospitality.
The aim, of course, is not blanket hostility to those genuinely in need, but to take a grip of an issue that has consistently eluded government control. Considering a range of measures to ensure that asylum and immigration measures work effectively is therefore entirely correct. By showing such a personal interest in the matter, Rishi Sunak has shown that he understands what a significant, and potentially toxic, political issue this is. His government must now reflect on which measures, from this report and elsewhere, it thinks will remedy the situation, then act robustly, and act fast.