Labour eases checks on illegal migrants

Repeal of Tory rules branded ‘total capitulation’ as legislation on citizenship and age testing is softened

NICK GUTTERIDGE

Labour is watering down border laws designed to block illegal migrants from obtaining citizenship and to force them to submit to scientific age checks.

The Home Office is repealing rules introduced by the Tories that meant that small boat arrivals could almost never become UK citizens.

It is also revoking legislation which gave ministers the power to treat asylum seekers who refused to undergo scientific age checks as adults.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the move was a “total capitulation to people smugglers” and would “make the UK the soft touch of Europe”.

Government sources argued the Tories had made “such a mess” of introducing the powers that they had never even been used since they were passed.

Home Office ministers last week published a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill which they say will help tackle the small boats crisis.

The small print of the legislation reveals the Government will repeal swathes of a previous Tory law, the Illegal Migration Act, which was only voted through Parliament in 2023.

That act included a provision which meant that almost anyone who entered the country illegally was ineligible for settled status and ultimately citizenship.

It also featured another clause which stated that asylum seekers could be treated as over 18 if they refused to take a scientific age assessment.

‘Dangerous young men’

Mr Philp told The Telegraph: “It will lead to dangerous young men being placed with teenage girls and makes the UK the soft touch of Europe.

“Starmer is a weak Prime Minister. He is weak on borders and is weak when it comes to protecting our borders, our children and our people.

“I will fight tooth and nail against this craven capitulation to illegal immigrants and people smugglers when the Bill comes to Parliament.”

Children are much more likely to be granted refugee status, and there are fears smugglers are actively advising migrants to claim they are minors.

In the first half of last year more than 1,300 illegal migrants were caught pretending to be minors after their cases were flagged by officials.

Official figures show that in the year up to last September three quarters of unaccompanied minors were granted asylum, compared with half of adults.

Those arrivals who are classified as under-18s are also given school places and housed by local councils rather than sent to migrant hotels.

Currently, small boat arrivals undergo an initial assessment by two Home Office staff who judge their “physical appearance and demeanour”.

To classify someone who is claiming to be a child as an adult it must “very strongly suggest they are significantly over 18 years of age”.

All other major European countries, including France and Germany, use medical tests to help determine the ages of younger asylum seekers.

They involve X-rays of hand and wrist bones and molar teeth, as well as MRI scans of knee bones and collar bones.

Powers to conduct such assessments in the UK were voted through in the 2022 Nationality and Borders Act, but they are yet to be put into practice.

That legislation said that officials must treat a migrant’s refusal to submit to such tests as “damaging” to the credibility of their claim to be a child.

In the 2023 Illegal Migration Act, then Tory ministers gave themselves power to go further and say that in event of refusal they were to be treated as an adult.

Labour has said it will retain the weaker powers from 2022 and that it reserves the right to legislate to introduce stronger sanctions if necessary.

A government source dismissed criticisms that it was going soft on border controls, saying the Tories had “failed” to control illegal immigration.

“Labour will continue to use age assessment and won’t hesitate to go further in legislation if needed,” they said.

The ban on citizenship had been criticised for leaving asylum seekers in limbo, meaning that their claims could not be considered.

Labour has vowed to clear the 177,000-strong backlog, which has led to 35,000 migrants being put up in hotels at a cost of £3 billion per year.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary who introduced the Illegal Migration Act, accused Labour of “decriminalising illegal migration”.

She said the Border Security Bill “removes all the security and provisions we had put into place to keep the UK safe and is a disgrace”.

“To put it bluntly, it is an insult to the British people. It shamefully opens up our borders and disgracefully allows illegal immigrants to become citizens,” she said.

“If you enter the UK illegally, you should be detained, deported, and banned from ever returning.”

Rupert Lowe, the Reform MP for Great Yarmouth, said: “Our asylum system is already as soft as a boiled maggot. Zero tolerance is required.

“It is abundantly clear that thousands of males are fooling the incompetent Home Office through lies over their age, sexuality, religion and more.

“It is a scam. The word of the migrant is often taken as the truth, with ‘the benefit of the doubt’ regularly implemented as official policy.”

Labour said its reforms would deter crossings by introducing significant new jail terms for migrants who delay being rescued until reaching UK waters.

The Telegraph: continue reading

Featured image: Anadolu

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

••••

Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

••••

Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

••••

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Liberty Beacon Project.