The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Channel migrants given right to work
Home Office grants asylum seekers route to work in care, construction and farming
CHANNEL migrants have been quietly given the right to work in sectors including care, construction and agriculture and can still retain access to state-subsidised bed-and-board under a Home Office scheme.
Nearly 16,000 asylum seekers including those who crossed the Channel in small boats have been allowed to work in a single year, according to data obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. They have been allowed to work in occupations where there are recognised staff shortages, and are paid 80 per cent of the going pay rate.
The migrants forgo their £49.13 a week state subsistence allowance if they earn more than that, but can negotiate with the Home Office to remain in asylum accommodation as long as they pay a contribution towards the cost.
Last night Nigel Farage and Tory MPs criticised the scheme, which they warned could act as a “pull” factor to encourage more migrants to come to the UK illegally. Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “This is a disaster. Once the traffickers can advertise jobs and free board, even more will want to come. Rwanda is completely irrelevant in comparison to this.”
European leaders led by the French have previously blamed Britain’s generous work and welfare regime for encouraging migrant crossings despite angry denials from UK officials that their asylum systems are more tolerant.
Many illegal migrants are feared to work in the blackmarket in Britain, which is also considered to be fuelling the migration crisis by some in Europe.
It comes as Rishi Sunak prepares for a showdown with the House of Lords as he seeks to push through his Rwanda Bill to get deportation flights off the ground by the spring as a deterrent to stop the boats. The scheme which gives migrants the right to work allows asylum seekers to work if their application remains unresolved after a year and they have yet to be granted leave to remain in the UK, but the Home Office has consistently refused to reveal how many benefit from it.
The FOI data, obtained by The Telegraph, have revealed the figures for the first time, showing they have ballooned largely as a result of a 10-fold increase in the backlog of asylum seekers waiting over a year and a record surge in migrants crossing the Channel. The data show 19,231 migrants applied in 2022 and 15,706 were granted work permits. That represented nearly a third of all the 51,000 asylum seekers in the one-year backlog of claims in 2022. That compares with fewer than 5,000 waiting more than a year in 2016.
Immigration experts believe that the number of working asylum seekers for 2023 could have increased further because of the demand for foreign labour to plug shortages in care homes, the NHS, construction and agriculture. Backlogs of asylum seekers waiting over a year rose to 61,000 in 2023.
Miriam Cates, the co-chairman of the New Conservatives Group of MPs, said: “We cannot solve the significant problems associated with irregular migration unless we deter people from crossing to the UK illegally, and this is the opposite of a deterrent.”
The scheme allowing asylum seekers to take jobs after a year is a legacy of an EU law from 2005 which reversed a ban introduced in 2002 by Sir Tony Blair barring illegal migrants from any right to work. The New Labour leader instituted the crackdown to tackle a migration crisis similar to that faced now by Mr Sunak.
MIGRANT boats in Dover should be sent to Ukraine to help the war effort, a volunteer organisation has told the Home Office.
British and Ukrainian volunteers have delivered 15 inflatable dinghies and rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) since October last year to soldiers fighting along the Dnipro River.
The small boats, which were in relatively poor condition, were driven from the UK to the south of Ukraine where they were refurbished. This included the installation of new engines and painting the vessels khaki.
They have provided a lifeline to the Ukrainian soldiers holding three established bridgeheads on the occupied eastern side of the river, by providing vital supplies and the ability to evacuate wounded soldiers.
When MissionUkraine, the organisation leading the small boats initiative, initially appealed to the Government for boats used by migrants to cross the channel, it was informed by Border Force that this would not be possible.
They said: “The majority of boats are not fit for re-sale or to ever go to sea again, because they arrive in very poor condition. These boats also deteriorate and perish over the period, and are therefore often destined for recycling.
“The boat engines might also be sold at auction, but again, over time, they are no longer operational, or require additional funds to bring their condition back to normal.”
A government spokesman told The
Telegraph that while it was “committed to supporting Ukraine” it “cannot donate unsafe and dangerous small boats which will put more lives at risk”.
However Alex Kruglyak, one of the leaders of MissionUkraine, insisted that poor quality boats were still useful to troops as marine engineers on the ground in Ukraine were able to refurbish them to a decent operating standard so that they were seaworthy again.
“All of the boats we deliver go through a boat maintenance procedure which is done by marine experts and all the engines go through an engine testing and maintenance procedure done by guys with decades of experience,” Mr Kruglyak told The Telegraph.
“We will pay for all transport and maintenance costs, we are not asking for a penny,” he said.
In June last year, the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was breached, causing widespread flooding that stopped Ukrainian troops advancing via the Dnipro River.
By October, Ukrainian troops had started to cross the Dnipro, but were using rowing boats, so as not to attract attention from the Russians. There are three established bridgeheads on the occupied eastern side of the river, with the Ukrainian troops at those secured areas dependent on small boats.
To date, the group has delivered second-hand boats to Kharkiv, Zaporizha, and Dnipro, which have then been transported to the front line.
Mr Kruglyak, 35, originally from Odessa but living in London, added that it “made sense” for the Government to donate the boats currently in a pound in Dover.
His calls were echoed by Paul Watson, 69, from Bridgend, Wales, who has driven to Ukraine’s front line numerous times with his friend Martin Blackwell, 70, to deliver both 4x4s and small boats.
He said that the RIBs they have so far transported were purchased from private owners for prices ranging between £1,500 and £4,000, with money raised through their local church. Some of them were “in a very bad state when we first took them out,” Mr Watson said.
“In any time of crisis people can be very versatile and alter things to become usable,” he said. “If one boat saved one life it was worth it.”
Mr Watson, a retired fireman, said the Ukrainian soldiers’ reaction when they arrive with the boats is priceless.
“They are so appreciative as they understand you’ve come a long way,” he said. “It’s vitally important for morale because they remember they are not alone.”
Volunteers insist that even damaged vessels can be salvaged and used in the fight against Russia