NEW MIGRANT SURGE ON WAY
Why we MUST speed up EU exit
BRITAIN could face a flood of EU migrants rushing here to beat Brexit, MPs fear.
The surge could take place before any new rules on EU citizens living in the UK come into force.
The MPs want ministers to act swiftly on leaving the EU to head off the problem.
Their demand, in a report by the Home Affairs Committee, echoes calls in a poll by readers of the Daily Express for a swift British departure from the EU.
MPs say the Government must clarify the status of EU nationals living here, as well as that of British expats living on the Continent.
Today’s report calls for a deadline by when migrants already in Britain would qualify for permanent residence after Brexit.
There are several options for the cut-off point.
These include the date of last month’s historic EU referendum, June 23, the date when Britain officially leaves the EU, or the day we trigger Article 50 – signalling formal talks on Britain’s exit.
Theresa May has said she
does not expect to invoke Article 50 this year. But leading “Brexiteers” want a swifter exit, which they say could happen within weeks.
It would be done by repealing the Act of Parliament under which the UK joined the EU in 1972.
In today’s report, the Home Affairs committee said: “Past experience has shown that previous attempts to tighten immigration rules have led to a spike in immigration prior to the rules coming into force.
“Much will depend on the negotiations between the UK and the EU and the details of any deal.”
The MPs added: “The outcome of the EU referendum has placed EU nationals living in the UK in a potentially very difficult and uncertain position. The key to resolving this is certainty.
“EU citizens living and working in the UK must be told where they stand in relation to the UK leaving the EU. There also has to be an effective cut-off date to avoid a surge in applications.”
Calling for a special Home Office unit to resolve Brexit issues concerning EU citizens in Britain, the committee urged the Government to quickly decide how it would establish where people live and work as a first step to clarifying their right to permanent residence.
Options could include registration or identification by National Insurance number. Committee chairman Keith Vaz warned: “There is a clear lack of certainty in the Government’s approach to the position of EU migrants resident in the UK and British citizens in the EU.
“Neither should be used as pawns in a complicated chess game which has not even begun.
“We have offered three suggested cut-off dates, and unless the Government makes a decision, the prospect of a surge in immigration will increase. Multiple voices and opinions from ministers causes uncertainty and must stop.”
Reacting to the report, Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, said: “Border officers at Dover tell me they can’t count EU citizens in and out and it could take a year or more to put systems in place.
“There must be a concern that Britain will struggle to prevent any EU migrant surge. The Government doesn’t seem to have a plan. It urgently needs one.
“If we’re serious about bringing down levels of immigration, we’ve got to keep order at the border.”
Mr Elphicke, who is not a member of the committee, also seized on his fellow MPs’ condemnation of the failure to collect millions of pounds of fines a year levied on lorry drivers caught with illegal stowaways. Drivers and their employers can face a fixed penalty up to £2,000 per person found, regardless of whether they knew they had people on board.
But fines on drivers and haulage firms – most of them foreign-owned – have not all been paid.
In 2014-15 nearly £6.5million in penalties was levied but only about £4million was recovered – and some of that may be from previous years.
Mr Elphicke added: “Hard-working truckers who have had migrants sneak into their lorries are furious that they cough up while foreign truckers get away with it. The Home Office needs to get a grip.”
Mr Vaz added: “The inability to collect penalties from breachers of our immigration law make a laughing stock of our border controls.”
The committee also repeated concerns about the 6,000 convicted foreign offenders living freely in Britain who have not been deported.
Responding to the report, a Government spokesman said: “We have been clear we want to protect the status of EU nationals living here. The only circumstances in which it wouldn’t be possible is if British citizens’ rights in EU member states were not protected in return.
“We are about to begin these negotiations and it would be wrong to set out unilateral positions in advance.
“But there is clearly no mandate for accepting the free movement of people as it has existed until now.”
IT IS imperative that EU nationals who have made a life here are reassured about their position in post-Brexit Britain. Many are understandably worried about their future. It is also vitally important that this uncertainty does not lead to a surge in migration as incomers attempt to beat new curbs.
Quite rightly the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee has called on the Government to sort this out. There must be a cut-off point setting a date by which migrants must have entered Britain if they are to qualify for permanent residence. The date could be June 23 (referendum day), the day when Article 50 is triggered or the day when Britain actually leaves the European Union. A decision must be made. And swiftly.
The call for speedy action is echoed in our readers’ poll which urged the Government to stop dithering now that the referendum has taken place. Stephen Pollard reflects this mounting sense of impatience in his article on this page.
Delay does nobody any favours. It may suit the Remain campaign which hopes that Brexit can be put off indefinitely and quietly forgotten. But it is cruel to the people from other EU countries who came here to work perfectly legally under the free movement laws. What suits the scornful pro-EU lobby is actually callous in terms of creating anxiety for the many decent EU nationals.