Newcomers are allowed to claim privileges without a good reason to avoid deportation, the home secretary has said
FILE PHOTO. Migrants land on Deal beach after crossing the English channel from France in a dinghy in Deal, England. © Luke Dray/Getty Images
The migrant crisis in Britain is “out of control” due to legal loopholes, Home Secretary Suella Braverman told local media on Saturday, vowing to “take dramatic action” to remedy the situation.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Braverman said, “there’s a crisis on the [English] Channel and it’s been going on for far too long.”
“The problem has gone out of control for a variety of reasons,” she claimed, adding that one of the most notable reasons is the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, which was sponsored by former UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
According to Braverman, this law has been actively abused by migrants seeking to stay in the country. “The aims and the structure of that legislation have been completely distorted,” and the “majority of people coming here from Albania” claim to be “victims of modern slavery,” she said.
The minister went on to note that some migrants attempt to claim this status after they “may have paid tens of thousands of pounds for the privilege.”
“That’s also regardless of the fact that they will have actively sought to come to the UK through an illegal, illicit and dangerous method,” she added.
Braverman says she intends to “take dramatic action” to reverse the tide, telling the outlet that she plans to amend the act to raise the evidential threshold in a way that allows privileges to be denied to those not entitled to them.
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She noted that even convicted criminals, including foreign pedophiles and murderers, are able to abuse the law to avoid being deported, saying: there is “a really low bar that you have to cross to be considered to be a victim of modern slavery.”
The home secretary, who was appointed in early September, also claimed that some parts of the police have been “captured” by woke groups, echoing a previous statement in which she lashed out at law enforcement agencies for paying too much attention to “diversity and inclusion” rather than fighting crime.
In recent years, Britain has been plagued by a migrant crisis, with thousands attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats.
According to government figures, as of late September, more than 30,000 migrants have crossed the channel by boat this year, exceeding the total numbers for 2021.
