Priti Patel warns countries that refuse to take back migrants will LOSE visas to the UK after vowing to turn back boats in the Channel and refuse asylum to anyone who travelled through Europe because they ‘could and should’ have stayed there

• Ms Patel warned the current asylum system, which costs taxpayers more than £1.3 billion, is ‘collapsing’
• Another 67 migrants arrived in England Wednesday, takes total number this year to 1,906 in a huge increase
• Government looking at US-style law that takes away visa routes from countries that don’t take back migrants
• Move could hit Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and Philippines, which are reluctant to take back migrants
• More than 10,000 criminals are due to be deported but freely roam the streets, while another 42,000 failed asylum seekers remain in the UK at huge cost to the taxpayer, including accommodation and allowance

No right to settle under Priti Priti’s asylum blitz

• Migrants who arrive in the UK illegally will no longer have the right to permanently settle here even if they have a strong asylum claim. 
• Anyone who arrives illegally having passed through a ‘safe country’ will be deemed ‘inadmissible’ to the UK asylum system. 
• The Government will seek the ‘rapid removal’ of ‘inadmissible cases’ back to the country they travelled to the UK from.  
• Those who cannot be returned to a safe country will be granted ‘temporary protection status’ for 30 months, with only limited access to benefits and limited family reunion rights. 
• The Government’s asylum estate will be expanded with the creation of new reception centres to provide accommodation while claims are processed.  
• Action to improve age assessment measures to safeguard against adults claiming to be children.  
• A new ‘one-stop’ process for claims which will require people to spell out all protection-related issues in one go to prevent last-minute legal bids to thwart removal of failed asylum seekers. 
• Maximum sentence for people smugglers raised to life, and to five years for foreign criminals who return to the UK in breach of a deportation order.   
• New humanitarian routes for the ‘vulnerable’ in ‘immediate danger’.

Priti Patel has warned countries that refuse to take back migrants will lose visas to the UK  after yesterday vowing to turn back boats in the Channel.

The Home Secretary is considering a ‘range of levers’ to force countries to take back failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants.

Ms Patel warned the current asylum system, which costs taxpayers more than £1.3 billion, is ‘collapsing’ under the strain placed on it by unscrupulous people traffickers in France and beyond.

Her department is looking at ways to imitate an American law that takes away visa routes from countries that refuse to take back illegal migrants, according to The Times.

The move could target countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and the Philippines, which are the most resistant to taking back their migrants.

More than 10,000 criminals are due to be deported but freely roam the streets, while another 42,000 failed asylum seekers remain in the UK at huge cost to the taxpayer who must fork out for their accommodation and weekly allowances.

The 50-page dossier from the Home Office also proposes toughened powers for Border Force to turn small boats around in the Channel.

It comes as another 67 migrants arrived on English shores on Wednesday, taking the total number to have crossed this year to 1,906 – nearly triple the number at this time last year. 

However, much of Ms Patel’s crackdown will be contingent on securing agreement with other countries, particularly France, raising questions about how effectively the measures could be introduced while some illegal migrants will still be able to remain in the UK for potentially as long as 30 months.  

The proposed changes will mean anyone arriving illegally who has passed through a ‘safe country’ will be considered ‘inadmissible’ to the UK’s asylum system. 

The Government will seek the ‘rapid removal of inadmissible cases’ to the safe country they travelled from or to another safe third country.

Meanwhile, Border Force will be given new powers to stop and redirect small boats and those on board away from the UK if they are suspected of trying to enter the country illegally. But this proposal will require agreement from the receiving port or country. 

In a bid to further deter people smugglers, the maximum sentence for such activity will be raised to life. 

The Government will also expand its asylum estate with the creation of new reception centres which will provide basic accommodation while cases are processed. 

This means the use of hotels to accommodate new arrivals who entered the UK illegally will end.  

Ms Patel said the ‘most significant overhaul of our asylum system in decades’ is necessary to ‘protect lives because we cannot carry on as we are with people dying in the hands of gangsters and smugglers’.  

She said people who arrive in the UK illegally having travelled through France and Germany are ‘not seeking refuge from persecution’ but rather ‘you are choosing the UK as your preferred destination’. 

Ms Patel said her new plan to toughen up the system will mark a ‘step change in our approach’ to asylum which will ‘deter illegal entry and the criminals that endanger life by enabling it’.  

The full details of Ms Patel’s new plan were unveiled as:

• The Home Secretary said this morning that European countries like France and Germany ‘are not war zones, they are safe countries’ and asylum claims should be made there. 
• Tory MPs asked Ms Patel if she is prepared to be ‘really tough in order to be kind’ and said ‘our European neighbours need to step up’. 
• Charities and human rights groups said the proposals are ‘inhumane’ as they demanded a rethink. 
• Labour warned the plans will do ‘next to nothing’ to stop people making Channel crossings.
• Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party, said it was ‘yet more tough talk’ from Ms Patel as he claimed ‘nothing is going to change’.  

 A young family amongst a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by Border Force officers following a small boat incident in the Channel today

Priti Patel said changes will help ‘create safe and legal routes to give people the chance to resettle and access our asylum’ while also combatting people smuggling and dangerous Channel crossings

Migrants are helped ashore on the Border Force vessel ‘Hunter’ as they walk onto Dover Harbour in Kent yesterday

However, the unveiling of the plan immediately prompted concerns of a potential spike in the number of attempted Channel crossings before the crackdown is implemented. 

The Immigration Services Union (ISU), which represents Border Force staff, said announcing changes to immigration rules ‘inevitably’ causes a ‘surge’. 

ISU spokeswoman Lucy Moreton told MailOnline: ‘It is equally inevitable that the criminals who drive irregular migration such as the small boat migration will use this as a reason to drive up both demand for and the cost of the crossings.’

Another well-placed source said: ‘I don’t think the proposed measures will stop people from crossing. In fact, I think even announcing them will cause even more crossings.’  

It came as UK Border Force today brought more people ashore as a result of small boat crossings in the Channel, with 800 people estimated to have made the crossing so far this year.

The Home Office confirmed that 67 migrants were detained in three small boats today while French authorities prevented three attempted crossings overnight and this morning involving an estimated 114 people. 

Setting out her ‘New Plan for Immigration’, Ms Patel told the House of Commons this afternoon that ‘while people are dying we have a responsibility to act’. 

She said: ‘At the heart of our new plan for immigration is a simple principle: Fairness. 

‘Access to the UK’s asylum system should be based on need, not the ability to pay people smugglers.

‘If you enter illegally from a safe country like France where you should and could have claimed asylum, you are not seeking refuge from persecution as is the intended purpose of the asylum system.

‘Instead, you are choosing the UK as your preferred destination and you are doing so at the expense of those with no where else to go.

‘Our system is collapsing under the pressure of parallel illegal routes to asylum, facilitated by criminal smugglers.’

The Home Secretary said the changes will help to deter people from making the perilous journey across the Channel. 

‘This plan marks a step change in our approach as we toughen our stance to deter illegal entry and the criminals that endanger life by enabling it,’ she said. 

‘Many illegal arrivals have travelled through a safe country like France to get to the UK where they could and should have claimed asylum.

‘We must act to reduce the pull factors of our system and disincentivise illegal entry.’

Ms Patel said the asylum claim process will be streamlined, telling MPs: ‘For too long our justice system has been gamed.

‘Almost three quarters of migrants in detention raise last minute new claims, challenges on other issues, with over eight in 10 of these eventually being denied as valid reasons to stay in the UK.

‘Enough is enough. Our new plan sets out a one stop process to require all claims to be made upfront.’

The plan will mean that people who come to the UK via unauthorised routes – such as crossing the Channel in small boats – will be given far fewer privileges.       

The plan states that illegal migrants who have ‘passed through safe countries’ where they could have claimed asylum ‘will be considered inadmissible to the UK’s asylum system’. 

The UK will seek the ‘rapid removal of inadmissible cases to the safe country from which they embarked or to another safe third country’. 

Even if they have a legitimate claim to refugee status, migrants who arrive illegally will be granted permission to stay in the UK only temporarily and for no longer than 30 months. 

This so-called ‘temporary protection status’ will also come with ‘less generous entitlements’ in terms of access to benefits. 

People whose cases are deemed inadmissible but who cannot be returned to their country of origin or to another safe country will also have limited family reunion rights.  

The changes will also make it possible for asylum claims to be processed outside the UK and in another country.  

The plan states that ‘this will keep the option open, if required in the future, to develop the capacity for offshore asylum processing’. 

More than 100 migrants crossed the English Channel yesterday on what is believed to be the record day of the year

A map shows the points along the coast where migrants have landed in the UK over the past year after crossing from France

The number of asylum applications lodged in the UK in the years ending December 2011 to December last year, dropping after the Covid pandemic was declared

The number of people offered protection in the form of resettlement (bottom line), asylum and alternative forms of leave (middle line) totalled 9,936 in 2020. The total number of people granted asylum or some form of protection (top line) fell by more than half that of 2019

Priti Patel mocked over ‘OCGs’ reference as Twitter users ask if she has been watching Line of Duty 

Priti Patel was mocked this morning after she referred to ‘OCGs’ during an interview as Twitter users asked if the Home Secretary had been watching Line of Duty. 

The TV crime drama is well known for its extensive use of authentic police jargon. 

One of the terms used on the programme is OCG which stands for organised crime group. 

Ms Patel told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people smugglers are ‘also part of OCGs, organised criminal gangs, that are responsible for a raft of criminal activity’.

The comment prompted ridicule on Twitter as one user said: ‘Priti Patel just used the acronym OCG on R4. Line of Duty has real cut through.’ 

Another said: ‘Priti Patel’s obviously been watching Line of Duty…’

Another user added: ‘Did Priti Patel really just say OCG on R4? What next? Illegal immigrants spotted at 1A on the matrix??’ 

By comparison, successful asylum seekers who applied in advance to come to the UK through legal routes, such as the United Nations’ refugee agency, will be rewarded. 

They will win permission to come to Britain immediately and will be allowed to stay here indefinitely. 

The proposals contained within the plan will now be subject to a six-week period of consultation followed by the Government bringing forward legislation to put the measures into law. 

Tory MPs welcomed the overhaul but sought assurances that the measures set out will actually be delivered. 

Sir Edward Leigh asked Ms Patel: ‘Is the Home Secretary prepared to do what Prime Minister Abbott of Australia did? He ensured that because all arrivals were put in a secure location and left there until their claim was processed and they were deported or allowed to stay, there are now no unsafe arrivals in Australia, there are no deaths, there are no criminal gangs, the policy works. Is (Ms Patel) prepared to be really tough in order to be kind?’

Ms Patel said the proposed system will be ‘fair but firm’ because ‘we have to be firm’. 

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Shaun Bailey said: ‘The broader issue here is this: our European neighbours need to step up. It’s as simple as that.’ 

Refugee charities claim many migrants have no choice but to come to the UK via illegal routes and have slammed the proposals as ‘inhumane’. 

Ms Patel had earlier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that illegal migrants should make claims in the European countries they travel through on their way to Britain. 

Told that critics believe it is unfair to differentiate based on method of arrival because many people arriving via unauthorised routes will still have strong asylum claims, Ms Patel said: ‘Well, they would also have a perfectly acceptable case to be given asylum in the same countries that they have travelled from, so France, Germany, Italy, Belgium. 

‘These are not war zones, they are safe countries, and it is important to emphasise that, they are absolutely playing into the hands of the people smugglers, the criminals who not only put their lives at risk by smuggling them into the UK but these criminals are also part of OCGs, organised criminal gangs, that are responsible for a raft of criminal activity – smuggling guns, drugs, people into the country.

‘That is not right and it is important that as a country we do much more to stop that from happening and also to protect lives because we cannot carry on as we are with people dying in the hands of gangsters and smugglers and I think until we can actually tackle these issues, inaction is not an option.’  

The Home Secretary said overnight that under her plan people arriving illegally ‘will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay’.  

‘If, like over 60 per cent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry into the asylum system – which is what happens today,’ she said. 

‘I make no apology for these actions being firm, but as they will also save lives and target people smugglers, they are also undeniably fair.’

Other elements in the wide-ranging package announced today include streamlining the asylum appeals process, and setting up reception centres to replace hotel accommodation and ex-Army barracks used during the pandemic.

It will also be made harder for asylum seekers to make unsubstantiated claims of persecution.

An independent body will be set up to determine the true age of applicants suspected to be posing as children, as revealed by the Daily Mail last week.

Jail sentences will be increased for people smugglers and foreign criminals who sneak back into the country after being deported.

The number of asylum applicants to the top five countries in the EU+ and the UK for the years ending November 2014 to November last year, with Italy receiving the smallest number of applications in 2020. The other EU+ category includes all other countries that are European Union member states, part of the European Economic Area and Switzerland 

The top 10 nationalities claiming asylum in the UK and the grant rate at initial decision (shown by percentage) in 2019 and 2020. The most applications in both 2019 and 2020 came from Iran, while Eritrea and Syria had the highest grant rates last year 

A new humanitarian route will be created to make it easier to bring individuals to Britain if they face imminent danger in their homeland – as in the case of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges before she was acquitted in 2019.

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: ‘We agree the asylum system needs reform, but this announcement takes the system backwards not forwards.

‘We should not judge how worthy someone is of asylum by how they arrived here. The proposals effectively create an unfair two-tiered system, whereby someone’s case and the support they receive is judged on how they entered the country and not on their need for protection. This is inhumane.’

The Migrant Voice charity said the proposals would condemn asylum seekers ‘to a life in limbo with restricted rights’.

Nazek Ramadan, director of the advocacy charity, said: ‘People fleeing persecution and death have the right to seek sanctuary. That is the starting point, and no policy should undermine it.

‘We are dealing here with human beings: they cannot be treated like commodities.’ 

But Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party, said it was ‘yet more tough talk’ from Ms Patel as he claimed ‘nothing is going to change’. 

Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said he feared the plan ‘will do next to nothing to stop people making dangerous crossings and they risk withdrawing support from desperate people’.

He added: ‘These changes risk making the situation even worse for victims of human trafficking as it would be even harder to access help in the UK, helping criminal gangs escape justice.’ 

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