Over 50 Tory MPs have sent a letter to Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak underscoring the need for emergency legislation to deal with the Channel migrant crisis, UK media reported.
Illegal Channel crossings have become a “Gordian Knot (seemingly unsolvable problem) that needs cutting with a simple policy”, the group of Conservative backbenchers including Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee, as well as a number of ex-cabinet ministers stressed.
The letter argues that those who claim they are “victims of human trafficking” should be returned “to their homes in the villages from which they came from”.
Britain’s government ought to take measures to ensure that “economic migrants” attempting to enter the UK while travelling from “safe countries” such as Albania should be returned more quickly, the signatories to the missive added.
If the UK authorities were to set in place a “straightforward and legally workable” method of dealing with the migrant influx, this would serve as a “very strong deterrent” for any illegals mulling embarking upon the journey across the Channel, said the group of MPs, which also included former cabinet ministers Liam Fox and Esther McVey.
The MPs believed that the country’s immigration systems, originally “designed to provide altruistic support to people who legitimately ask for our help”, were now suffering “intolerable stress” amid an inundation of people “abusing” the process.
The UK Conservative party has been struggling and up until now – miserably failing – to tackle the migrant issue, which could ultimately come back to haunt the party in the next election.
The issue was further thrust into the headlines recently amid reports underscoring the deplorable conditions at the country’s overcrowded Manston migrant processing center in Kent.
The Home Office site had taken in 4,000 arrivals while the capacity was said to be 1,600, and housed families with children in “utterly inadequate” facilities.
After reports of staff facing “threatening and violent behaviour” on a daily basis from frustrated migrants, and purported outbreaks of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, the site was emptied.
However, several of the migrants moved from the Manston centre to other parts of the country are said to have been suffering from suspected diphtheria, with one man there reportedly dying of the disease.
With the UK Health Security Agency set to make public data on the issue later on Monday, Suella Braverman acknowledged that the government had “failed to control our borders”.
“I tell you who’s at fault. It’s very clear who’s at fault. It’s the people who are breaking our rules, coming here illegally, exploiting vulnerable people and trying to reduce the generosity of the British people. That’s who’s at fault,” Braverman said in parliament.
