Boris Johnson (aka Bojo the Clown) has been looking increasingly like the clown that many people say he is. His bumbling handling of the so-called Covid crisis hasn't done him any favours, and his inability to be a chad in Brexit negotiations has marked him out as a political joke. But could his government be about to redeem itself by finally getting tough on the illegal migrants who have been crossing the English Channel in droves in recent months?
Possibly. There is now a new Post-Brexit law on the books that will remove migrants' right to claim asylum if they are intercepted at sea. In 2020 around 8,500 migrants have reached the UK by the Channel route, seven times higher than the 2019 figure.
The legislation would allow Border Force vessels to intercept migrant boats at sea and immediately return them to France. Even if it starts a war with France, that would be fantastic!
The Telegraph gives more details:
Immigration minister Chris Philp announced the new law on Thursday night (10th Dec) as the first step in the Government’s planned reform of what he claimed was the UK’s “broken” asylum system...The new post-Brexit law replaces the existing Dublin Regulation agreement with the EU, where migrants’ claims can be rejected on the grounds that they should have claimed asylum in the first EU country through which they passed.However, it also goes further in removing the current right of migrants to claim asylum when they are rescued at sea by Border Force or Navy vessels.
The week point in the legislation, of course, is that it depends too much on French cooperation, and the French are, of course, more than happy to offload their migrants on Britain.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is seeking a new agreement with the French that they will take back migrants intercepted at sea in British or French waters and even if they reach land in the UK.
The French, however, have resisted on the basis that any attempt to board and turn back the boats is a potential breach of maritime law for putting the migrants’ lives at risk - a claim disputed by British lawyers.
Of course another way to deter the migrants would be to "detain" all of them for extremely slow "processing" at a maximum security facility built on one of Britain's outlying, wind-blown Atlantic islands or somewhere in the North of Scotland, feeding them on authentic British cuisine like tripe, porridge, and soggy chips.
Typical Scottish waterfall emptying into sky.
After a few years of that, most of them would be begging -- and swearing on the Koran -- to return to the lovely Third World hellholes they have presumably fled from.
Unfortunately the UK's Immigration Minister does not seem to be that far-sighted.
Unfortunately the UK's Immigration Minister does not seem to be that far-sighted.
Mr Philp said: “We are determined to fix the broken asylum system to make it firm on those who come here through illegally-facilitated routes and fair on those who play by the rules. There is no reason to leave a safe country like France to make a dangerous crossing.“These measures send a clear message and are just one of the steps the Government is taking to tackle the unacceptable rise in small boat crossings.
Yes, it's all about sending a message -- to disgruntled Tory voters.
The UK government is making this effort for two main reasons. One is because it is skint after splashing out on Covid measures, and, two, because Nigel Farage has been blasting it for letting in the migrants relatively unopposed, and thus alienating a large part of the Tory Party's support.
In Post-Brexit Britain immigration, which the vast majority of voters hate, is set to become a big issue. Other reforms are said to be in the pipeline:
A wider reform of the asylum system is expected in the New Year with Ms Patel pledging to tackle “litigious” human rights claimants who seek to delay their deportation from Britain after their cases are refused.
It is also expected to make it more difficult for foreign criminals to avoid deportation by lodging an asylum claim. It is understood a Bill, to be introduced early in the New Year, will force judges to place more weight on asylum seekers’ criminal records.
Currently, serious criminals including killers and rapists trump deportation orders in the courts by claiming their human rights will be infringed if they are sent back to their home countries.
She is also planning to tighten the appeals system for non-criminal claimants. They will have to lodge all their arguments at the beginning of a case so they cannot make a series of legal claims to delay deportation.
These relatively mild measures are probably the best you can expect from a Tory government. What the UK needs, however, is a real nationalist party to solve this crisis. Every effort must be made to build one.
