The Modern Slavery Act was a terrible mistake
When my party was in power, we failed to stop the boats. All barriers to deportation must be removed
Every now and then, a minister sounds like they might just get it. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer said he worried mass immigration would turn the country into an “island of strangers”. But his party went berserk, and the PM blamed his speechwriters, saying he had not read his own keynote speech until he stood up to make it.
This week the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has noticed illegal immigrants are making “vexatious, last-minute” legal claims to thwart deportation. A concerned citizen might have taken this intervention to mean curbs on the laws that allow these appeals were forthcoming. But hard words will be followed by limp action.
Mahmood’s statement followed High Court injunction blocking the deportation of an illegal immigrant to France as part of the Government’s “one in, one out” treaty. An illegal immigrant had abruptly claimed to be a victim of human trafficking and said he would be destitute if sent to France.
The Home Secretary promised to fight these claims in the courts, but has not said she will change the laws that make the claims – and the rulings – possible. There is no government plan to reform or repeal the Modern Slavery Act, reform or withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, or change our immigration laws to address the problem Mahmood called “intolerable”.
When the Modern Slavery Act was first passed, the number of cases sent to the National Referral Mechanism were in the low thousands per year. But gradually, as Left-wing NGOs and claimant immigration lawyers realised this was an opportunity to keep illegal immigrants in the country, case numbers exploded. In the last six months, there were nearly 11,000 referrals. Three quarters are made by the immigration agencies.
If the Modern Slavery Act is to survive at all, its criteria must be tightened and evidential thresholds raised. There should be – like with the rest of the immigration system – ouster clauses to limit judicial review. There should be time exclusions so claims cannot be brought at the last minute, and ministers should be able to exclude whole nationalities of claimants where there is evidence of organised abuse of the law.
Neither is there any sign of radical changes in human rights laws. Mahmood says she will legislate to limit the application of claims made under Article 8 of the ECHR – the right to a family life – and she wants to work with European governments to change the Convention overall. But Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, has admitted this is a “political trick”, Labour have not joined other governments campaigning for change, and Mahmood, like the Prime Minister, says she remains “a supporter of the Convention”.
Tinkering with the precise definition of Article 8 will do very little. Push it very far, and the courts will declare the definition incompatible with the Convention. Do anything less, and the change will be unhelpful. Foreign criminals and illegal immigrants will continue to appeal using unqualified rights granted by other articles – such as Article 3, freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment – to frustrate their removal.
And this is the truth. Any government that hopes to secure the border and deal with the problem of illegal immigration will only succeed with total and uncompromising change. All barriers to deportation must be removed. Every single legal right of appeal needs to go. Anybody who enters our country illegally should never – ever – be allowed to stay in Britain.
[…]
[Labours] policy response has been to speed up asylum decision-making, and say yes to more claimants, cynically preferring to hide illegal immigrants in the welfare and social housing statistics.
The Telegraph: continue reading
••••
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.
Leave a Reply