BORDER FARCE
Rishi Sunak told ‘this cannot go on’ as 1.4m migrants given visas and record 62k granted asylum last year
The vast majority of visas were handed to 616,371 workers and 605,504 students, as well as their families
SOME 1.4million visas were handed to migrants last year - with senior Tories today telling Rishi Sunak: “This cannot go on.”
A record 62,000 people were also granted asylum in Britain, marking a staggering 243 per cent rise in 12 months.
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However the number of refused claims also surged by 445 per cent and the “grant rate” has dropped as ministers make progress in clearing the backlog of cases.
The PM has vowed to dramatically slash foreign arrivals by hundreds of thousands and in December laid out a package of fresh migration controls.
While these new measures had no bearing on last year’s migration, the latest stats sparked calls for an overall cap.
They show:
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- Just 2 per cent of small boat migrants have been returned since 2018
- Bad weather played a big part in reducing the number of Channel crossings last year
- Some 45,768 illegal migrants are still in hotels costing millions of pounds a day
- The asylum backlog has been slashed to 128,000 from 175,000 the year before
The vast majority of visas were handed to 616,371 workers and 605,504 students, as well as their families.
There were also 85,640 people who came to the UK to live with people currently here via family visas.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Work & student visa numbers, including many dependents, are appalling.
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“This cannot go on: we don’t have enough homes, GPs or schools to support this level.
Advocating for an annual migration cap, she added: “Britain will be unrecognisable if this carries on. It’s not what the British people, including me, voted for.”
Downing Street insisted their recent crackdown would curb the amount of legal migration, which includes higher salary thresholds and a ban on care workers bringing families.
On illegal migration, while record numbers were granted asylum the overall acceptance rate went down.
Some 62,336 people were granted asylum, rising from 18,185 in 2022. Meanwhile 30,967 were refused asylum - up from 5,685.
BORDER SHAMBLES
THE immigration watchdog has claimed Britain’s border security is “neither effective nor efficient” in a damning report released yesterday.
David Neal, the chief inspector who was recently sacked for leaking the findings, came to the conclusion after observing passport e-gates. He laid bare chaotic systems at many airports, with roving officers thinly stretched and distracted from guarding the border.
He said “basic stuff is not being done well” and added: “On the basis of this inspection, I believe the protection of the border is neither effective nor efficient.”
The Home Office’s release of his reports had been delayed for months.
Government figures insist the record number of acceptances is because they are getting through the backlog of cases faster.
But Labour put the boot in over woeful stats showing just 2 per cent of small boat migrants have been returned in the past six years.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These damning statistics show how Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have lost control of our immigration system and our border security - and have no plan to turn it around.”
Mr Sunak’s spokesman said the Rwanda deportation plan - currently gummed up in the House of Lords - would help remove illegal migrants.
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WHAT IS THE RWANDA PLAN? IMMIGRATION SCHEME EXPLAINED
What is the Rwanda plan?
Under the plan, anyone who arrives in Britain illegally will be deported to Rwanda, a country in eastern Africa.
The government believes the threat of being removed to Rwanda will deter migrants from making the dangerous Channel crossing in small boats.
Once in Rwanda, their asylum claims will be processed but there is no route back to the UK, save for some exceptional circumstances such as individual safety concerns. Britain will pay for migrants to start a new life in Rwanda.
What’s the hold up?
First announced by Boris Johnson in 2022, the scheme has been bogged down by relentless legal challenges.
The first flight was due to take off in summer 2022, but was blocked on the runway at the last minute by a European Court order.
Since then the legality of the plan has been contested in the courts, culminating in a Supreme Court judgement in November last year which said Rwanda was unsafe for asylum seekers.
What is Sunak doing?
To salvage the Rwanda plan from the Supreme Court’s scathing ruling, Rishi Sunak announced a two-pronged workaround.
First, he would sign a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for asylum seekers that will be enshrined in law.
Second, he would introduce new legislation that would declare Rwanda a safe country.
It would mean courts, police and officials would have to treat it as safe unless there is a risk of individual and irreparable harm.
How long will that take?
The legislation has cleared the Commons but is now being held up in the House of Lords.
Rishi Sunak does not have a majority in the Lords, and peers are far more hostile to the plan.
They will likely send it back to the Commons with amendments watering down the scheme.
Such changes would be unconscionable to MPs who would strip out the measures and send it back.
This “ping-pong” will continue until either side - usually the unelected Lords - gives in and the Bill passes.
When will flights take off?
Mr Sunak wants to get the first flights sent to Rwanda by the spring.
But potential hurdles include more court battles launched by individual migrants or the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Sunak has vowed to ignore any more orders by Strasbourg judges to ground planes, although individual appeals in domestic courts could prove tricky.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will scrap the scheme if he is elected PM, even if it is working.
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